§ Baroness Fisher of Rednalasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they are satisfied that ophthalmologists and opticians have adequate specialist training and equipment to allow them to assess, objectively, the visual capacities of mentally handicapped persons under the age of 30 years.
§ Lord TrefgarneThe assessment of mentally handicapped patients can be extremely difficult. I am confident, however, that any optician or ophthalmologist would refer a patient with problems beyond his own skills or facilities to an appropriate colleague. In the General Ophthalmic Service an optician or ophthalmic medical practitioner is required to do this by his terms of service, via the patients GP in the first instance. In hospitals, many orthoptists are specially trained in the problems of assessing ocular muscle balance (squints) in mentally and physically626WA handicapped children. However, perhaps if the noble Baroness has a particular case of difficulty in mind she would like to write to me.