Eyecare

1. © 2020 PCC
Covid-19 changes to the delivery and operation
of optometry services
NHSE/I letter published on 1 April 2020:
• Changes to optometry services delivered outside of hospital
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• 2020-21 contracts and finance
• Workforce
• Further advice and guidance
• Infection control -
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/updates-
and-guidance-for-optical-settings/

2. © 2020 PCC
Changes to optometry services delivered outside
of hospital
• All routine optical services are suspended
• Limited delivery of urgent and essential eye care from optical
practices only
- Urgent or emergency care – contract is held with a CCG to
deliver urgent clinical advice or intervention
- Essential – delivered under General Ophthalmic Services
(GOS). This includes patients not normally considered to
be emergencies in the practitioners professional
judgement and may include lost or broken glasses
and/or contact lenses

3. © 2020 PCC
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Staff safety and confidence in PPE guidance is very important
for staff engaged in direct patient care.
NHSE/I will continue to be led by the emerging evidence and will
update the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) available on
their website to reflect updated advice through the NHS Infection
Prevention Control (IPC) colleagues and Public Health England
The SOP can be found at:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care/optical-
setting/

4. © 2020 PCC
2020-21 contracts and finance
NHSE/I will take immediate steps to revise the operation of the
2020-21 contract requirements to reflect service disruption due
to COVID-19, to:
• Maintain cash flow and immediate stability and certainty for
optometry practices who are providing urgent and essential
eye care services in a consolidated and temporary local
service model
• Fairly recompensing practices for GOS costs
• Enabling practices to cease provision of GOS services for the
period of the COVID-19 response, where appropriate
• Ensuring that appropriate capacity exists locally for
patients to access urgent and essential eye care

5. © 2020 PCC
Workforce
NHSE/I recognise the impact that self-isolation and social
distancing is having on the optical workforce. They also realise
that the changes to GOS during COVID-19 will mean there is
freed capacity within a highly skilled workforce
NHSE/I will encourage the freed-up workforce capacity to
support:
• Ongoing provision of urgent and essential eye care
• NHS colleagues working in wider primary care
• NHS colleagues working in the acute COVID-19 response
• Local authority and voluntary services COVID-19 response

6. © 2020 PCC
Workforce
Where possible staff contact details should be made available to
NHSE/I so that individuals actively support any national or local
calls for help.
Up to date information and how to register to provide services in
other parts of the NHS
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/returning-clinicians/

7. © 2020 PCC
Further advice and guidance
NHS England standard operating procedures
https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/primary-care/
College of Optometrists (guidance supported by NHSE/I)
https://www.college-optometrists.org/the-college/media-
hub/news-listing/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-
optometrists.html
Professional regulators support to health professional
https://www.optical.org/en/news_publications/Publications/join
t-statement-and-guidance-on-coronavirus-covid19.cfm

8. © 2020 PCC
Support from PCC
Commissioners and ophthalmic practices can contact us at
enquiries@pcc-cic.org.uk for help to navigate through Covid-19.
Existing subscribers can use the eye care helpdesk to submit
their queries