Advocating for more effective utilisation of optometry in western Victoria

Optometry Australia’s State Lead for Victoria, Lyn Hsieh has actively engaged with members to understand eye care health needs in western Victoria. This was part of the Western Victoria Primary Health Network’s (WVPHN) triennial consultation of the health and service needs in the region.

Consultation with members while visiting practices in the region highlighted that optometrists and their patients experience a range of challenges, including:

• Lack of community awareness about the need for timely eye examinations, particularly for those who have diabetes, are at risk of glaucoma, or are primary school age children.
• Difficulties in accessing public and private ophthalmology services due to long wait times, and poor community-based post-operative care models.
• Patients not completing clinically indicated courses of intravitreal injections for age-related macular degeneration and macular oedema, due to financial concerns about gap payments and travel requirements.
• The potential to improve health outcomes by enabling optometrists to prescribe oral therapeutic medications, for common eye health conditions.
• The inability to use Medicare subsidised telehealth to support rural patients or to liaise with ophthalmologists.
• The need for greater support to embed digital health in optometry practice.
• The challenges in developing alternative approaches to address the unmet needs of patients, particularly those who are transitioning between primary and secondary care in the public health system.

In advocating to WVPHN, Optometry Australia noted the above concerns, highlighting that while current eye health issues are not necessarily unique to western Victoria, they are exacerbated by other issues that have been identified in the region. These include an aging population, high levels of chronic health conditions, issues with health workforce retention and a lack of accessibility to affordable eye care services.

Lyn Hsieh said, ‘Optometrists in the WVPHN area have consistently emphasised their willingness to work with other health professionals and stakeholders to ensure that eye health needs are delivered in a timely and affordable way. They have pointed to the high levels of collaboration between health professionals in their area, as well as with specialists to whom they refer patients.

‘We encourage WVPHN to consider their role in facilitating opportunities for local eye health leaders to develop multidisciplinary care projects to help address unmet eye health need in the WVPHN footprint.’