§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) whether he proposes to finance a scheme for domiciliary visits by ophthalmic opticians;
(2) why he turned down the offer of ophthalmic opticians to fund their own scheme for domiciliary visits.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe have no plans to finance such a scheme under the general ophthalmic services. There is already provision for domiciliary visits to be made to patients under the hospital eye service.
The offer made by ophthalmic opticians excluded the other professions working in the GOS and extending the scheme to them would have had financial implications for the NHS. Moreover, we were not satisfied that a scheme involving ophthalmic opticians only would not in itself have had revenue implications for the NHS in the longer term.