Primary Care Optometry and PPE

Dear Colleagues
Please see important message below from the Chief Optometric
Adviser. Representative bodies such as Optometry Wales and the UK Optical
Bodies have been in discussions with our respective Governments about the supply
of PPE. We are now able to confirm the following as below. There will be many
questions I am sure from practices who will continue to see patients. Please be
patient with us as we issue further updates and contact details in your health board
area about how and when the PPE will be supplied to practices where
necessary. We will be issuing the list of PPE in further notifications so please watch
this space, follow us on Twitter/Instagram/LinkedIn and Facebook. Please appreciate
that sorting the process around supply and demand of this will take careful planning,
we will try and address your concerns but we may not have the answers yet.
Kind regards, Sali Davis
Sent on behalf of the Chief Optometric Adviser
Dear Colleagues,
Primary Care Optometry: Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)
Following the concerns raised by front line NHS staff regarding the use and
availability of personal protection equipment (PPE), respective UK Governments
have been working with NHS and Public Health leaders to revise guidance about
PPE for NHS clinicians examining patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
New guidance has now been released by Public Health England endorsed by the
Chief Medical and Chief Nursing Officers across the UK nations, and for the first
time, these guidelines featured advice for primary care, eye care practitioners:
We intend to publish supplementary guidance for optometric teams in Wales to
ensure clarity of what the new guidance means for them and the way that they safely
manage patients.
This will include advice regarding:
• The type of PPE relevant to the clinical setting for optometry practices
• Appropriate disposal of PPE equipment
• Information and available resources for the correct use of PPE
As optometric services have moved to a health board co-ordinated cluster delivered
service, agreed optometric teams that continue to see urgent and essential eye care
patients, need to be supported and adopt these guidelines across Wales.
It is also important that the guidelines are followed properly and that PPE is only
used as specified. For every piece of PPE kit used unnecessarily, a piece of kit is
unavailable to staff most at risk.