Key points from the North Yorkshire Local Optical Committee meeting

02-07-2024

CPD day

The CPD day will be held at the National Railway Museum in York on Tuesday 15^th October 2024. Sarah Smith will email when the agenda has been finalised and she is able to take bookings for the event.

Referral update

Choice Office has indicated that secondary urgent appointments (4-6weeks) should go to the GP before being referred on by the GP to the HES. Clinicians in practice were not aware of this. There has been no communication it had changed from: emergency- ring triage, urgent- 2 weeks via HES triage email, routine- Choice. It was queried what GPs can add to a secondary urgent referral except a delay in the referral process. One benefit is that OPERA referrals are automatically correctly coded in GP’s software before being sent to the HES, but GPs don’t want these urgent referrals. Clinicians are advised to continue as now and referrals won’t get lost in the longer referral chain.

Harrogate urgent referrals are seen efficiently within 2days as they have a shared Ophthalmic secretary email which works well. Out of hours works well in York.

Financial report

Phil has confirmed he will continue for now but asked that a new Treasurer take over from him by the next AGM (~April 2025).

The current and savings account are very healthy. Accounts show money for the hypertension scheme and the workforce funding scheme. The main outgoings were for licence fees, service charges and retention fees.

The statutory levy remains as it was, however the adjustment to 0.75% has been requested. 0.5% to the LOC and 0.25% to LOCSU.

The LOC Company update

THE LOC Company (PENYH) has existing contracts until 2026 which Lisa Barker wants to see through. Contracts are running in East Riding and Hull which are for IOP and post-op cataract for SpaMedica.

Scarborough has decommissioned post-op cataracts (a scoring system to refer in via Pharmoutcomes) so it can align with the rest of North Yorkshire. North Yorkshire uses the points system of 10+ to qualify for referral and sends these via secure email to the Choice Office.

There is a new LOC constitution coming from LOCSU.

North East and Yorkshire Regional Optical Conference.

Regional Optical Conferences are replacing the national conference. Current points for discussion include: Post payment verification, IP place of best practice, Data management, Choice agenda and Single Point of Access plans (e.g. Choice Office).

Local Optical Network.

Task forces are being set up and it was asked that LOC committee members cover sub-specialities so the LOC has a voice. These would be zoom meetings online for ~1hour with Nizz, the ICB clinical lead. The sub-specialities include: cataracts, medical retina, learning disabilities, glaucoma and urgent care.

Any other business

The date of the next LOC meeting is Wednesday 23rd October 2024 at The Crown Hotel in Boroughbridge at 7pm. Buffet provided from 6.30pm.