A robust optometry workforce is arguably not just a community benefit, but a population health need. As Skye Cappuccio writes, it’s vital that we ensure an optometry workforce that can thrive in the short term and evolve into the future.
There have been increased concerns across the optometry profession about current employment opportunities and conditions, and about the future of the profession. Members who reach out to us about these issues often feel stuck and worried about what their future may hold. These concerns are compounded by the impacts of our current cost-of-living crisis.
Critically… demand for services is not the same as the community need for those services
Workforce oversupply?
At the root of many concerns about employment conditions in optometry is the issue of workforce supply (people power) and demand (for services) imbalance. To accurately assess this we need more comprehensive and detailed data and so Optometry Australia (OA) has commissioned an updated workforce supply and demand projections study. This study will provide a clearer understanding of the expected short- and medium-term workforce supply and demand balance, drawing on known data and trend analysis. Critically, it will inform our advocacy efforts, helping us to shape and advocate for policies that support a sustainable, well-distributed workforce.
There are concerning signs that we are teetering on an oversupply of optometrists. Data and insights on average salaries indicates wage stagnation and anecdotally, we know the same holds true for locum rates. Further, while the majority of new graduates are still finding roles, it is clear that metro opportunities are extremely limited and many are having to move far from home to pursue their careers.
While workforce size is a product of many factors, in Australia the increased growth rate of the optometry workforce has primarily been driven by increased new graduate numbers. University funding models are complex, and while there are some ‘caps’ on the number of Commonwealth-supported places that universities can offer, they do not impose limits on the number of students that can be trained in a specific profession (with the exception of medicine).
Consecutive governments have been clear that they have no interest in introducing further profession-specific caps. This essentially means if it is viable for a university to startup a course or increase student numbers, they can do so, regardless of whether or not this is supported by the profession or the association. It is cold comfort that the situation optometry finds itself in is not unique to the profession.
Critically, however, demand for services is not the same as the community need for those services. There is significant unmet need for eye and vision care across much of the country. Lengthy public ophthalmology waiting lists are common, often including patients that could be managed by optometrists in the community or through co-management arrangements. Less obvious are the proportion of our community who simply aren’t accessing eye and vision care and who miss the opportunity to correct vision or identify a chronic condition that would benefit from early management and intervention.
OA is strongly focussed on trying to grow demand for optometrists’ services in ways that are in the interests of patients, population health, and the profession. Key activities include the pursuit of Medicare billing changes as part of our federal election campaign strategy, to enable young and middle-aged patients to access rebates for eye care more frequently and in line with best practice. We are also pursuing partnerships with industry to support an impactful community awareness campaign, launching in 2025, to ensure more children and their families understand the necessity of accessing regular eye care.
We are actively working to ensure more optometrists can work more consistently to their full clinical scope today. This includes through the recent launch of our Advanced Practice Recognition program, which aims to support optometrists to be recognised for advanced expertise they develop in particular clinical areas. We are also advocating for optometrists to work more consistently to their fullness of scope, including through collaborative care arrangements with ophthalmologists, and broader integration of optometrists within public health settings. Encouragingly, there is increased recognition, and numerous well-established approaches that provide evidence, of the benefits to patients and communities of supporting collaborative care between optometrists and ophthalmologists. Also encouraging is the increased incorporation of optometrists within public systems, with recent developments in Queensland of particular note. Those optometrists and stakeholders who have advocated for and pursued these system adaptions at local levels are to be applauded.
Oversupply poses significant challenges for the profession, including risk of reduced workforce conditions
Employment conditions
Oversupply poses significant challenges for the profession, including risk of reduced workforce conditions for employee optometrists and higher workforce turnover.
OA has long provided one-to-one support for members, and access to expert legal advice, on a range of professional issues, including HR and employment issues. This continues, and we are increasingly offering out-of-hours appointments to meet the needs of members.
Common member concerns relating to employment conditions relate particularly to limited access to breaks, access to leave, and the manner in which key performance indicators are employed. We commonly support members, one-on-one, to negotiate beneficial adaptions to their employment conditions.
It’s also, understandably, common for employee optometrists to have concerns about the implications of ‘rocking the boat’ in the workplace. To this end, we have commissioned Flinders University to undertake a study on the employment conditions experienced by optometrists.
The research is providing space for employed optometrists to anonymously share their experiences working in the sector. Study findings will provide a platform for Optometry Australia to raise points of concerns with stakeholders and advocate for positive change.
Skye Cappuccio is the Chief Executive Officer of Optometry Australia.
