Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to expand the use of community optometry services.

Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing the health needs of their local population and commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet them. This can include the commissioning of enhanced eye care services from high street optical practices, including minor and urgent eye care services and glaucoma referral refinement services.

NHS England’s accelerator pilots have demonstrated that improved IT connectivity and a single point of access can significantly speed up eye care referrals and support more patients to be managed in the community, in line with the ambitions in the 10-Year Health Plan.