Optometry Australia (OA) is harnessing the theme of World Optometry Day, to urgently push for regulatory changes allowing optometrists to work to their full scope-of-practice, highlight areas such as oral medications prescribing.
World Optometry Day is celebrated every year on 23 March to create awareness on the importance of eyecare, and to recognise the important contribution of optometrists in maintaining community eye health.
The World Council of Optometry’s (WCO) theme for 2023 is: ‘Expanding optometry’s role… the time is now!’. As part of this, WCO is seeking to “advocate for stronger global access to eyecare and ensure that optometrists around the world have the education and skills to thrive and contribute within their respective healthcare systems”.
In response to the annual awareness day’s 2023 theme, OA said that by making full use of Australia’s highly skilled optometry workforce, Australia can significantly enhance patient access to care and increase the efficiency of the eye health system.
OA president and Sydney optometrist Dr Margaret Lam said in Australia, there are more than 6,000 registered and highly skilled optometrists who are well-distributed throughout metropolitan, regional and rural centres.
“However, we are not making optimal use of the full breadth of their skills,” she said.
“Optometry is a vital component of the healthcare system. Optometrists perform around 10 million eye checks annually and are appropriately the first point of contact for 80% of people with eye concerns. They diagnose, treat, manage and triage patients with eye disease, while bridging the gap in situations where timely care is not readily accessible.”
In order to reduce the burden of eye disease and its impact, Lam said there is a need for policy changes that will ensure optometrists’ skillsets are being maximised for the benefit of the community.
“For example, while Australian optometrists are unable to prescribe oral medications, their counterparts in developed countries, such as the UK, New Zealand and United States, have been doing so safely for many years. This supports a smoother patient journey and more timely access to needed treatment, particularly in the many regions of Australia with limited access to GP or specialist care,” she said.
“We also need to ensure that we are utilising optometrists in eyecare pathways in the most effective way. This can be as simple as ensuring patients who can be treated by an optometrist in the community are referred to optometry rather than to the tertiary care system where costs are typically higher and wait times typically longer.”
According to OA, 90% of blindness and vision impairment is preventable or treatable with early detection, highlighting the important role of optometrists in maintaining community eye health. OA’s 2022 Vision Index report further cites that three in four Australians value vision as their most important sense.
More than 13 million Australians are reported to have one or more long-term eye conditions – with many undiagnosed cases – and nearly 85% of Australians with vision impairment are aged 50 or over.
‘‘We have an ageing population and a strained tertiary eyecare system. This is a recipe for poor outcomes, unless we act now to ensure we are utilising the skilled workforce we have, as well as we possibly can,” Lam said.
More optometrists not the answer
WCO president Professor Peter Hendicott – the second Australian to lead the body in its 94-year history – optometry must recognise that solutions to the issues facing eyecare will not necessarily be attained by simply training more practitioners.
“We need to work smarter and more effectively. This will require us to develop future alternative models of the provision of eyecare by optometrists, aimed at improving equity, access, efficiency and outcomes,” he said.
“As a profession, we need to consider the inclusion of eyecare delivery by other practitioners, how they may work together with optometry, and how optometry can take a leading role in partnerships to develop models of delivery, training, leadership, and management of eyecare teams. We need also to consider the impact of current and future technology on the delivery of eyecare, and how these tools can be utilised by optometry, working with other eyecare professionals, to improve equity, access, and outcomes.”
Hendicott said the industry needed consider how the skills and competencies of optometry can be more widely used with health care systems. There is ample evidence supporting an increased primary care role for optometry, demonstrating improved outcomes for patients through earlier detection of conditions with ocular morbidity, and a reduction in unnecessary referrals to ophthalmology at the secondary care level.
“Utilising optometry in collaborative care and shared care schemes is a cost-effective way to increase the provision of eyecare, thus making eye care integral to Universal Health Care, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals,” he said.
To grow optometry’s competencies and wider involvement in health care is a complex process, needing either or both of educational and legislative change, as well as recognition. This is why the time is now. Optometry needs to position itself to speak and act towards the achievement of improved healthcare outcomes for society in terms of eyecare, and to also recognise the impact of improved eyecare on social, financial, and educational outcomes as well.”
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