Perkins comments on Improved Px Choice

Leading independent provider of NHS services welcomes PMs calls to improve patient choice

Specsavers has welcomed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s calls for more patient choice to help cut NHS waiting times.

Mr Sunak’s announcement was a key recommendation from his elective recovery taskforce looking at solutions to resolve overstretched NHS capacity. More recommendations from the taskforce’s report are expected to be announced in due course.

Specsavers was founded by optometrists Doug and Dame Mary Perkins in 1984 to widen access to eye health, providing quality patient care that also represented better value for money for customers. These founding principles remain at the heart of the company.

Mr Perkins, the Chairman of Specsavers, says: ‘Like many other independent sector healthcare practices, Specsavers is proud to be an NHS primary care provider, offering NHS patients general ophthalmic services and a range of NHS community eye health and audiology services. We help patients get the care they need in accessible community locations with availability at short notice.’

Around 65% of Specsavers customers are entitled to an NHS eye test. With its 990 stores throughout the UK, Specsavers is the leading provider of NHS primary care optometry services, delivering 50% of all NHS Optometry services in the community. It is also the leading provider of locally commissioned NHS minor eye conditions services, providing over 1 million treatments a year.

The company also provides more than 40% of NHS community audiology services  in England, supporting more than 200,000 NHS audiology patients a year.

Mr Perkins adds: ‘Primary care optometry is outstanding value for money for the NHS and highly effective at preventing avoidable sight loss. In most of the UK, minor eye care services offered by primary care optometry practices in the community mean that patients with minor eye conditions can be seen immediately, without a GP referral, – they don’t need to visit A&E. At a time when the pressure on GPs and A&E services is at unprecedented levels, primary care optometry helps relieve pressure on GP and hospital services.

‘The independent sector increases capacity, improves access, choice and clinical outcomes for patients and reduces pressure on overstretched GPs and hospitals – ultimately reducing waiting times and costs across the health service.’