Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of long-term patient relationships in community optometry on continuity of eye care for elderly patients.

We recognise the value of providing care closer to people’s homes, including community optometry, which can support more personalised care and more continuity of care.

Integrated care boards are responsible for assessing the health needs of their local populations and for commissioning primary and secondary eye care services to meet them. Eligible patients in England can access high street National Health Service sight testing services from any provider. Patients can return to the same provider through choice, and where this is not the case, patients can give consent for their new practitioner to request relevant clinical information from another optical practice. This enables the continuation of their optometric care.