The College of Optometrists

I have been lead to believe recently (last week) there was a meeting with the Health Minister for the Welsh Assembly Government. I understand this is a fairly informal annual meeting where representatives of the various optometric bodies in the UK are invited to propose ways of improving provision of health care in Wales.

From what I understand bodies such as ABDO, FODO and Optometry Wales all attended, but the College failed to send a representative. Since the Health Minister holds the cheque book for health service spending in Wales and that this would have been an ideal opportunity to demonstrate our professions ability to provide high quality eye care in the community, I was wondering how this could have happened?

This meeting was arranged by Optometry Wales of which the College is a member. Our representative at the meeting was Dick Roberts.