19 March 2020

FODO member alert – advice on remote consultations

Sector responds to COVID-19 emergency – supporting patients and registrants 

In this member alert you will find: 

• Advice, information and support to help you decide whether a patient needs to attend for a sight test or contact lens fitting/check. This includes templates you can use in practice to perform a telephone review 
• The GOC's joint statement on remote consultations and prescribing 
• Clarification on viral conjunctivitis.  

The GOC has today published a new statement on the supply of spectacles and contact lenses. This allows registrants to use their professional judgement to decide whether a patient needs to attend for a sight test or contact lens fitting/check in order to supply spectacles and contact lenses. 

The GOC has also signed a joint regulatory statement on remote consultation and prescribing which is particularly relevant during this period of social distancing. 

FODO, ABDO, AOP and the College of Optometrists said: 

“We are encouraged by the GOC’s response to our concerns regarding patients’ need for eye care during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this period, we want to ensure patients can still access replacement contact lenses and spectacles, safely. This guidance gives members confidence that they will be able to work within the GOC’s standards of practice and act in the best interests of patients. 

“The ability to supply optical appliances by telephone review when an eye examination or contact lens aftercare is due is both a sensible and proportionate approach to achieving this. We have developed contact lens and spectacle telephone review forms to help support professionals to deliver the best possible care during this time, when some patients may not be able to attend the practice due to self-isolation. 

“The templates will help ensure practitioners can deliver consistent telephone-based consultations and provide a robust record of the review. Following a telephone review, patients should be invited to attend for eye care in person, once it becomes safe to do so.” 

FODO members can access the telephone review forms below: 

• Spectacle lens telephone review form – 19 March 2020 
• Contact lens telephone review form – 19 March 2020 

The College of Optometrists and Royal College of Ophthalmologists have also issued a joint statement on viral conjunctivitis and COVID-19. This will help reassure both patients and practitioners and confirms that: 

• “It is unlikely that a person would present with viral conjunctivitis secondary to COVID-19 without other symptoms of fever or a continuous cough as conjunctivitis seems to be a late feature where it has occurred” 
• “Viral conjunctivitis is not currently listed in the national case definition for COVID-19”
• “therefore, practitioners should treat viral conjunctivitis in the absence of other symptoms as they would usually treat any presentation of viral conjunctivitis, including normal scrupulous levels of infection control, for instance, as we do for adenovirus which is very contagious”. 

The Colleges have confirmed that the “optometric management of viral conjunctivitis can be found in the Clinical Management Guideline, it is a self-limiting condition and should not be referred to secondary care”. Read the full statement.