Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS funding was spent on general ophthalmic services in 2021-22; and what proportion of that funding was on (a) NHS sight tests and (b) NHS optical vouchers, including for repairs and replacements.
The following table shows the cost to the National Health Service in England in 2021/22 of providing General Ophthalmic Services.
General Ophthalmic Services | Cost | Proportion |
NHS Sight Tests | £307 million | 56.6% |
NHS Optical Vouchers incl. Repairs & Replacements | £222 million | 41% |
Other GOS contract costs | £13 million | 2.4% |
Note:
Draft accounts for this period, the numbers are not finalised until published on the NHS England website.
The following table shows the cost for secondary care organisations submitted via the National Cost Collection for outpatients within Treatment Function Code ‘Paediatric Ophthalmology’, for the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21, the latest available data.
Year | Cost |
2019/20 | £43.7 million |
2020/21 | £50.5 million |
The published data is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/costing-in-the-nhs/national-cost-collection/