Professional Matters Optometry & Dispensing
An overview of Optical Provision in Wales
An overview of Optical Provision in Wales
The Welsh Government has published eye care statistics for April 2023 to March 2024 – the first official statistics to cover new Welsh GOS contract activity.
Highlights:
- 317 practices and 42 domiciliary providers delivered WGOS
- 941 optometrists (28.6 per 100,000 population) and 148 FTE ophthalmologists (4.5 per 100,000 population)
- 841,000 practice-based sight tests and 29,000 domiciliary sight tests
- 243,000 WGOS2 examinations, an increase of 15.8% on EHEW in 2022-23. Approximately 60% were for band 1, 25% for band 2 and 15% for band 3. More detailed data on WGOS2 provides a further breakdown of activity, including that primary care delivered 63,573 visits for eye pain/discomfort, 39,070 for red eye and 21,964 for an acute vision problem
- 8,400 low vision assessments, an increase of 3.7% since 2022-23, more than 67% for people aged 80 and older
- 1,574 new CVIs issued.
Hospital eye service (HES) data shows that GP referrals have reduced. This is most likely due to more people seeing their optometrist for eye health concerns. Referrals to HES reached 122,000 referrals in 2023-24.
