AN INDEPENDENT VIEW

Save the GOS1

After years of ‘making do’ with a widely acknowledged insufficient GOS fee to cover NHS eye examinations, a growing number of opticians are considering adopting private only models and eschewing the GOS contract in its entirety.

Exact figures differ, but the £22.14 currently offered doesn’t come close to the actual cost of performing an eye exam (estimated between £75-£100). As a result, it has become standard practice for optical practices to ‘subsidise’ this loss-leading service through the sale of spectacles; garnering a not-so-healthy reputation with the public as being sales motivated rather than the primary care clinical profession that they represent.

With no evidence that practices have gone out of business through under-funding combined with the cost-of-living crisis, it is not surprising that the government’s appetite for a radical overhaul of the GOS fee structure, which would ultimately see clinicians paid a fair fee that adequately covers the costs of service provision, is slim to none. The AIO is therefore proposing an adjustment to the wording of the existing contract; one which does not require significant changes to the fee provided nor lengthy negotiations.

The Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) has launched two short self-led online courses, one on conflict management and one on change management. Available to anyone in the optical community, the courses can be purchased from the ABDO website and studied as convenient. Completion of each course offers General Optical Council registrants two CPD points in the professionalism domain.

Nick Wash, ABDO head of corporate development, said: “ABDO now offers a suite of management and leadership development opportunities, which includes the successful diploma and certificate courses leading to Chartered Management Institute qualifications, as well as the CPD-accredited one-day workshops in change management and conflict management. All ABDO courses can be found on the Association’s website, www.abdo.org.uk

Instead of the GOS1 being used to offer a ‘free’ exam for the patient, the AIO proposes that the GOS1 instead be a voucher towards the cost of one. In this way, practices charging appropriate fees – and not relying on the sale of spectacles to cover the cost – can still provide services for their NHS patients. Equally, practices currently offering ‘free’ eye exams need no longer claim funding from the NHS; thus saving the NHS money. We believe this simple but effective change would help to stem the tide of practices dropping the GOS contract altogether.

With healthcare services stretched thin post-pandemic, primary care optometry stands atop a precipice whereby a lack of adequate provision of eye healthcare will undoubtedly lead to a sharp rise in costly, end-stage pathologies that would otherwise have been detected through a routine eye exam. Keep the GOS1 fee the same, but allow it to contribute towards the eye exam fee, not encompass it. Give clinicians back the freedom to charge appropriate professional fees – and ensure that our profession does not sink further into dependency upon retail and ‘shop-tometry’.