Professions response to landslide election result

Professions response to landslide election result

The new Government’s Health leader has been announced as Wesley Paul William Streeting. His appointment announced as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care last week. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford North since 2015.

This is a person that for once has demonstrated an interest in improving the healthcare situation in the UK and has already stated that in his opinion the NHS is a broken system.

Let us hope that we can retain his services for a length of time suitable to make a real difference. So often Health Ministers are shuffled around ministerial jobs at the drop of a hat.

FODO’s immediate response was to call for the new government to act now to stop avoidable blindness

The Association for Eye Care Providers – calls on the new government to invest more in primary eye care to save the NHS money and save sight.

• Delays in hospital treatment are causing irreversible sight loss
• This has a massive impact and cost on individuals, the NHS and wider economy
• Acting now will help reduce the cost and impact of sight loss.

Loss of sight due to delays in hospital care is 100% avoidable and, for each person, represents a costly tragedy.

The NHS is already paying out millions in compensation due to delays in eye care. This will get worse unless action is taken now.*

The NHS urgently needs to reform the costly and unsustainable hospital outpatient model of eye care. It can achieve this by rebalancing NHS investment so that more work is done in cost-effective primary eye care settings, closer to home and out of hospital.

Investing more in primary eye care will help slash the cost of delayed hospital care and sight loss.

With our members, who provide more than 80% of primary eye care services in England, we are committed to working with new ministers, the NHS and all sector partners to deliver:

1. Frictionless digital connectivity between primary and hospital eye care services, helping to reduce duplication and costs in the system.

Enhanced primary eye care services in all communities. An initial focus on urgent eye care and glaucoma services will immediately reduce pressure on hospitals and help prevent avoidable sight loss.

Read FODO’s position statement on Sight loss due to delays in care. 

ABDO Response

Alistair Bridge, ABDO CEO, said: “Primary eye care has the workforce, expertise and capacity to help the NHS prevent avoidable sight loss due to delays in care. ABDO will work with the government and sector partners to make change happen.”

AOP response

Primary care investment, with the optometry workforce at its core, must be at the forefront of the new government’s plans.

The  AOP is calling on the new administration to put primary care investment at the forefront of its plans, and deliver on its commitments to optometry.

Waiting times, whether as an secondary care outpatient or accessing a GP, continue to pose an unprecedented challenge to the NHS and patients. The growing needs of patients, an aging population, workforce shortages and ongoing industrial action all leave a healthcare service under great strain, a situation made worse by the long lasting impact of the pandemic.

Read on here for AOP statement