Madam, - I agree with Joseph O'Sullivan (August 14th) that there is a simple way to reduce the two-year waiting time for a first appointment at children's eye clinics and that is to use the services of optometrists. As part of its study of competition in professional services, the Competition Authority looked at the services provided by optometrists and concluded, in a report published in June, that they were being underused by the State.
Children identified at child health and school health examinations as requiring eye examinations are entitled to receive these free of charge. The free eye examinations are currently provided by specialist practitioners called ophthalmologists, generally in community clinics, but not by optometrists. The exclusion of optometrists from providing these services - which they are qualified to offer - has had the following effects.
1. Children must generally wait for an appointment with an ophthalmologist, instead of getting their standard eye examination straight away from an optometrist.
2. To avoid such delays many parents opt for private testing by an optometrist, thereby paying for a service that their child is entitled to receive free.
3. State funds are used to pay ophthalmologists - employed full time and 30 on a sessional basis - to provide standard eye examinations, which could be provided by appropriately qualified optometrists. There are 612 optometrists in Ireland.
All submissions to the Competition Authority on this issue - including those from all eye-care professionals, schools and the HSE - agreed that it would be appropriate for children aged 11 and 12 to be referred to optometrists directly from school screening, rather than to ophthalmologists. Optometrists would treat those who could be treated with optical appliances and refer those with problems caused by medical eye disorders to the ophthalmic services. Children below that age would continue to be seen by ophthalmologists in the first instance. - Yours, etc,
DECLAN PURCELL, Director of Advocacy, The Competition Authority, Parnell Square, Dublin 1.