Labor would see optometrists treat some common eye problems such as cataracts and glaucoma in opticians as it looks to make the NHS in England more productive, a shadow health secretary has said.
Karin Smyth told the Institute for Government (IFG) that the party’s plan would target the 620,000 patients currently waiting for NHS eye care, with 17,000 patients waiting more than a year. It has previously emerged that hundreds of NHS patients lost their sight after postponed appointments.
The party said it would try to negotiate a national deal to provide more routine outpatient care to high street opticians, using existing funds. This includes cataract pre-assessments and post-surgery follow-ups, glaucoma monitoring, and general diagnostic testing.
Smyth said it would free up hospital specialists to treat more serious cases and provide better value for money.
Labor said the plan had support from expert ophthalmologists. Prof. Ben Burton, the president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, said it was a “positive commitment to supporting eye care patients and we would offer our clinical expertise to shape this policy if it were delivered by the government”.
Smyth replaced Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, who is ill. He told the Sun newspaper on Monday night that the NHS needed more reform than more money, which has provoked a response from the left.
Responding to Streeting’s comments, independent MP and former shadow health secretary Diane Abbott said: “The population is aging and growing. It is also becoming increasingly sick as the consequences of the cuts are being felt. There are also rising costs in the NHS, especially when it comes to medical equipment and many medicines. Of course the NHS needs more money. Wes Streeting doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
Smyth told the IFG conference that around one in four missed outpatient appointments was due to administrative problems, costing £300 million a year. She highlighted that the NHS is still spending £200m a year on paper and postage, a decade after Jeremy Hunt promised the healthcare system would become paperless.
She also highlighted the cost of £1.7 billion in hospital beds for patients who were well enough to leave but could not because care was not available in the community, £3.5 billion paid to recruitment agencies due to staff shortages and £ 626 million spent by the Department of Health and Social Care on management consultants.
John Glen, a Cabinet Office minister, also addressed the IFG conference on how to reform the civil service to improve productivity.
He indicated that civil servants taking jobs in data, digital and AI would receive higher pay to help fill the shortages, but that this would save money on consultants overall.
The minister said he would review the pay structure for these areas of expertise as he sought to transform efficiency in Whitehall.
Glen, who has been in office for 10 weeks, has also outlined plans to overhaul staff groups of civil servants, known as ‘networks’, to ensure their impartiality, after previously telling the Telegraph he was leading the crackdown on ‘activism’ in Whitehall during working hours.
He also confirmed he wanted to ensure senior civil servants were in the office more than 60% of the time, which is now the amount required for all Whitehall workers.
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His other ideas to boost efficiency included launching a new performance management framework for civil servants to make it easier to get rid of underperforming employees or help them improve.
Overall, Glen said he wanted to work toward a “smaller, better-skilled, better-rewarded civil service,” reducing numbers by about 66,000 to bring last year’s high of about 457,000 back to 2019 levels .