Read the updated Optometry Victoria South Australia Strategic Plan

This story was created and shared by Optometry Victoria South Australia (OV/SA).

With Optometry Victoria South Australia in the final year of a three-year plan, the OV/SA board has undertaken a review and has now set revised strategic objectives for the year ahead.

After a few years of necessary online-centric events, core to the ongoing strategic planning for the next few years is the delivery of a wide range of face-to-face events, including building on our work around evidence into practise, and providing new and greater opportunities for members to connect with each other in person.

Other features of the strategic planning include:

• Collaboration with public ophthalmology and improved communication to referring optometrists. This includes partnering with health services on collaborative care models as well as working to support improvements in patient reporting back to optometry.
• Increasing community awareness about the importance of children’s eye health and the pathways to optometry. Our ongoing advocacy efforts are aimed at increasing testing in schools and promoting the importance of eye health in children, leading to more families ensuring their children’s eyes are regularly checked by an optometrist.
• Focussed work on enabling our members to make meaningful connections with GPs and pharmacists. We’re working to further integrate optometry into the wider health community with the goal of improving the patient experience.
• Collaboration with OA and other Federation divisions. Increasing our collaborative capabilities with other State Divisions and Optometry Australia (OA) will provide a better overall service to members. Part of this is the proposed Integration project, which if confirmed by member vote in July will begin the process of integrating operations directly with OA.
• Engage with a new occupational injury project. We are committed to flexibility, agility, and staying closely connected to what members need. As an example, after discussing the issue with members we will be engaging a more thorough investigation into optometry-related injury risks and how best to mitigate them.

You can read the updated Strategic Plan here.

Note: this plan will be implemented regardless of whether the organisation integrates with Optometry Australia. If the Integration proposal goes ahead, OA will be ensuring our objectives are met.