There are many parallels in the working environments of Optometrists and Pharmacists, particularly in the community settings where health professionals are prioritising patient need in commercial businesses within sectors dominated by multiples.
The PDA is focussed on the issues affecting pharmacists and so we don’t plan to directly engage in the optometrists campaign, though we wish them success in defending the reputation of their profession and standing up for the interests of patients. However, in the same way we work with other groups of professionals with common interests, where our two campaigns can be aligned to challenge shared issues we will of course do so.
If you want to help fight these apprenticeship proposals, there is one action that would directly help our optometrist colleagues with their campaign, and that is by signing a petition which already has in excess of 10,000 signatures.
We can also report that, like the PDA have in pharmacy, the Association of Optometrists (AOP) have listened to their members. The AOP understand the concerns that health professionals have about the potential consequences of an apprenticeship on the reputation and educational standards of their profession. The AOP have therefore acted in the interests of those they represent and made clear in a statement that they will oppose the apprenticeship proposal.
Despite the original pharmacist apprenticeship proposal being successfully resisted, pharmacists continue to face the potential of an apprenticeship and this week, the PDA also issued a joint statement with the Guild of HealthCare Pharmacists in regard to the latest Pharmacist apprentice proposal.