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William Stockdale “” Andy Britton “”
Contact lens optician, FODO member and Optometrist in Haverfordwest, Wales and FODO’s
Optometry Northern Ireland past chair Optometry Wales council member
Since establishing an independent practice in Northern In Wales, we have a long history of building on the solid
Ireland over 20 years ago, I have played an active role in foundation the national sight test service provides.
primary eye care, including serving as a FODO director and
chair of Optometry Northern Ireland. Today, primary eye care in Wales provides enhanced
referral refinement for conditions such as glaucoma and is
In Northern Ireland, 95% of our population lives within five increasingly at the heart of emergency and unscheduled
miles of a primary eye care practice. We live and work in care in local communities. This includes enhanced foreign
local communities and see the importance of our sight body removal and an Independent Prescribing
testing service. It helps children through education, keeps Optometry Service.
people at work and helps prevent falls in older people; and,
of course, helps us detect eye health issues which in turn This means we see more people close to home and out of
helps avoid preventable sight loss. hospital, which benefits patients, the NHS and colleagues
in busy hospital departments. This is made possible by
It is an amazing public and population health achievement working closely with ophthalmology colleagues and
that the high standard of care the population can access system leads.
without a wait is universal.
There is so much more we can do to meet needs locally
We have built on this with the Northern Ireland Primary and in Wales we are now ready to expand access to
Eyecare Assessment and Referral Service (NI PEARS), which more enhanced primary eye care to help tackle sight loss
deals with urgent eye problems and reduces pressure on due to delays in accessing overburdened secondary eye
GP and hospital colleagues. care services.
In recent years we have also added an ocular hypertension Read more
and glaucoma service, which includes enhanced case-
finding, monitoring and treatment for OHT patients.
We continue to work collaboratively with system colleagues
to build on our successes, including interconnectivity and
developing enhanced services.
Read more
Audiology Primary Eye Care
Pharmacy
GP Dentist
20 FODO UK The future of primary eye care – principles and priorities 21
