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When an optometrist flies into a small outback airstrip or drives hours across red dirt roads to reach a remote clinic, they’re not just providing an eye test; they’re restoring independence, education, and wellbeing to people who might otherwise go years without care. For fifty years, the Visiting Optometrists Scheme (VOS) has quietly delivered this lifeline across Australia’s most isolated communities, ensuring access to eye care where geography and circumstance might otherwise deny it.
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Last week, as National Rural Health Month approached, Optometry Australia (OA) hosted a celebration at Parliament House in Canberra to mark the VOS’s 50th anniversary. Federal parliamentarians, community leaders, sector stakeholders and outreach optometrists gathered to honour a program that, since 1975, has helped prevent avoidable blindness and bridged one of the starkest divides in the nation’s health system: access to vision care.
But amid the celebration came a note of urgency. The VOS, which reimburses essential outreach costs such as travel, accommodation, and equipment transport, is facing mounting funding pressures.
‘The VOS has transformed eye care in regional, rural and remote communities,’ said Skye Cappuccio, Chief Executive Officer of Optometry Australia. ‘But after fifty years, it’s time to ensure this legacy remains sustainable. Without sustainable investment, the program’s reach – and the equity it represents – are at risk.’
A proven model of outreach success
Funded by the Federal Government and administered through regional fundholders, the VOS enables optometrists to deliver services to more than 300 remote and very remote locations each year.
Expanded in 2009–10 to strengthen care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, it has become a cornerstone of Australia’s efforts to eliminate avoidable vision loss. Today, the VOS supports the provision of eye care for First Nations peoples across all MMM areas – in urban settings as well as rural and remote communities.
Each VOS visit not only provides clinical care but builds trust and connection with local health teams, often through Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) and local GPs.
‘Outreach eye care is about more than sight; it’s about community wellbeing, education, and independence,’ Ms Cappuccio said.’VOS ensures communities that are often overlooked are not left behind.’
Optometrist and OA member Fiona Moore echoes this sentiment. ‘My partner Tom and I take turns visiting Woorabinda, an Aboriginal community about two and a half hours west of Rockhampton,’ Fiona explained. ‘We have one patient we see every time we visit — a woman now in her early seventies who suffered trachoma as a child. She’s been left with scarred and distorted eyelids, which cause painful ingrown eyelashes. Each trip, it’s our pleasure to remove those lashes so she can live without pain and reduce the risk of damage to her cornea until our next visit.’
She added, ‘We also make sure that if further referral is needed, it’s arranged as quickly as possible.’
A system under strain
The VOS enters a new funding period in July 2026, and the Federal Government has confirmed it is open to considering updates to the Service Delivery Standards that underpin the scheme.
The timing could not be more critical. The Optometry Workforce Projection Study – commissioned by Optometry Australia and conducted by the University of Queensland’s Centre for the Business and Economics of Health – found that while Australia’s optometry workforce is currently in oversupply based on current service use, there would be a significant shortfall if everyone accessed eye care at the level of actual need.
Essentially, while the profession has grown overall, the report reveals stark regional disparities. More than 87% of optometrists work in metropolitan or large regional centres, leaving many rural and remote communities underserved.¹ In very remote areas, there are only 3.5 full-time equivalent optometrists per 100,000 people, compared with 22.7 per 100,000 in metropolitan areas.²
Further, in August 2025, Optometry Australia undertook a national member survey to ensure frontline insights inform these discussions, particularly on whether current funding arrangements and support structures remain fit for purpose. While most providers expressed strong satisfaction with the purpose and impact of the program, only 16 percent felt the current funded activities reflect their actual outreach work, and just 21 percent considered remuneration rates adequate.
Ms Cappuccio said the findings underscore the urgency of long-term, coordinated action.
‘We have a responsibility to the profession and the community to ensure alignment between service access and population need,’ she said. ‘This means investing not just in training, but in retention, rural incentives and the outreach programs, including the VOS, that connect optometrists to the people who need them most.’
The human cost of inaction
The implications of underfunding are tangible. Without sustainable travel and locum support, some outreach clinics risk being scaled back or cancelled, leaving patients to wait months or travel hundreds of kilometres for basic eye care. For older Australians, that can mean losing a driver’s licence; for children, falling behind at school; for people with diabetes, risking irreversible vision loss.
Building a sustainable future for outreach eye care
Optometry Australia’s advocacy for the next fifty years of the VOS program calls for long-term, sustainable funding that reflects the real costs of outreach service delivery and embeds culturally appropriate care, workforce support, and innovative models of care into the next phase of the program.
First Nations leadership and self-determination must inform the ongoing design and delivery of the Visiting Optometrists Scheme, in order to ensure the program continues to evolve and meet the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Looking ahead
During National Rural Health Month, where the sector shines a spotlight on the challenges of delivering healthcare across regional and remote Australia, Optometry Australia’s message is clear: the Visiting Optometrists Scheme remains one of the nation’s most effective examples of equitable healthcare delivery.
While the VOS is a cornerstone of outreach eye health, it forms part of a broader national effort by Optometry Australia to grow access and demand for optometry services where they are needed most. Through advocacy, awareness, and collaboration across sectors, OA is working to ensure that every community, regardless of geography or circumstance, can benefit from timely, high-quality optometry care.
Optometry Australia’s advocacy over the coming months will focus on shaping the next funding round, backed by member insights and robust evidence from the workforce report. We also recognise the need to work with and listen to First Nations leadership, including the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) and its affiliates, and the First Nations Eye Health Alliance (FNEHA), in ensuring the scheme meets the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The message to policymakers is simple: every Australian deserves access to quality eye care, no matter their postcode. Because when the optometrist comes to town, vision – and opportunity – follow.
References
1,2 Optometry Australia (2025). Optometry Workforce Projection Study: Centre for the Business and Economics of Health, The University of Queensland.