Key points from the North Yorkshire Local Optical Committee meeting

07-01-2025

Single Point of Access (SPOA)

The Single point of access for North Yorkshire is the Choice Office, which the Integrated Care Board (ICB) is looking to expand to cover East Yorkshire and Hull.

A business plan was signed off early 01/2025 regarding SPOA for cataracts and is hoped it will be in place by summer 2025. There will no longer be a £12 admin fee for completing a referral refinement cataract form. Instead, a GOS 18 or equivalent referral requesting cataract treatment will be required. If both eyes need treatment, this should be stated in the referral, else only one eye will be treated and the patient discharged. Thereafter, the Choice Office will conduct the cataract scoring over the telephone with the patient. Patients will be given the choice of where they would prefer their treatment. However, complex cases and those requiring general anaesthetic will only be offered hospital options.

All post op cataract care will be in community, unless clinically complex. There was no confirmed price for the post op appointments as yet. The referral pathway for post op care was noted currently to be paper based, but the issue of paperwork and information being lost was raised so this may change to an electronic method.

WOPEC Assessments

There will be an evening held in central York for WOPEC assessments for North Yorkshire clinicians, funded by the LOC. A date/time will be confirmed and shared in due course, along with information of a booking fee which will be refundable on attending the event. Thank you to those who responded to the request for information regarding the demand for WOPEC assessments for MECS, Glaucoma and a foreign body removal course in the area.

Hypertension Scheme changes

There is no longer a £7.50 payment for the lifestyle questionnaire alone. There is £15 that can be claimed if a blood pressure measurement is taken. Also, if a referred patient is followed up with a phone call to confirm what the outcome was and it is logged onto Pharmoutcomes, then a further £15 can be claimed.

There is a £250 signup fee and a retention fee of £100 if practices continue to take part. 41 optical practices are confirmed for the next pilot, including 15 already from previous. However, there are slim criteria for taking a blood pressure reading- the patient should not have had a blood pressure test in the last 5years.

Financial report

The current and savings account are very healthy. Accounts show money for the hypertension scheme and the workforce funding scheme. The workforce payments continue to be more than the hypertension payments. The CPD day has been paid for.

The statutory levy remains as it was, however Debbie Leadbetter, the Optical Lead for the area, is helping to amend this for the LOC.

Any other business

The date of the AGM is Tuesday 8^th April 2025 at The Crown Hotel in Boroughbridge. We hope to arrange a CPD session, followed by buffet food and the AGM meeting. The LOC meeting will follow on afterwards.