Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to promote the greater use of community optometrists and opticians to relieve pressure on hospital eye departments.
Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for commissioning secondary care hospital eye services for their populations. CCGs are also able to commission eye care services in the community, over and above the National Health Service sight test, to meet local need. Given the size of England, and the diversity of the health needs of different communities, we believe commissioning needs to be owned and managed locally.