RANZCO and Specsavers have negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding that will see the two parties collaborate on the development of optometry referral guidelines, initially encompassing glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and AMD.
All optometrists, regardless of their affiliation or independence, are able to participate in the project and in an associated education program at RANZCO Congress in November this year.
RANZCO’s President, Dr. Brad Horsburgh issued a statement to announce the project saying, “RANZCO is committed to promoting the very best eye health care for people across Australia and New Zealand, as well as further afield. To achieve this, we need to ensure that patient pathways to RANZCO Fellows are appropriate, effective and safe. That means working collaboratively with relevant health professionals, such as optometrists, to ensure that they have the skills to diagnose diseases such as glaucoma and to refer these patients to ophthalmologists.”
Dr. Horsburgh said the referral guidelines would not favour, or be “dependent upon, any particular practice referral system or methodology and would simply lay out a pathway for optometrists to follow if they identify certain symptoms”.
All optometrists, regardless of their affiliation or independence, are able to participate in the project and in an associated education program at RANZCO Congress in November this year
He said working with Specsavers, with its practices in Australia and New Zealand, ensured “significant metrics and data” could be gathered from the pilot program over a two-year period for use in assessing the effectiveness of the guidelines.
Dr. Horsburgh said the RANZCO referral guidelines would “be promoted and made widely available”.
