Optometry Board of Australia’s Chair questions if the way the profession is viewed has changed in 100 years
Colin Waldron, Chair of the Optometry Board of Australia, has questioned whether optometrists are viewed any differently by ophthalmologists today compared with 100 years ago. He highlighted this in a recent Chair’s report due to the legal action commenced in the Queensland Supreme Court by the Australian Society of Ophthalmologists (ASO) and The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (RANZCO) in relation to the Optometry guidelines for use of glaucoma medications by optometrists.
On 23rd March 2013, the Optometry Board of Australia updated its guidelines for optometrists with therapeutic endorsement, stating that they can now initiate treatment for patients they have diagnosed with glaucoma. Prior to this optometrists would need to refer the patient to an ophthalmologist to initiate glaucoma treatment. ASO and RANZCO have taken the Optometry Board of Australia to court regarding claiming that they should not have had the power to update the guidelines.
Colin Waldron has highlighted the fact that Tasmania was the first state to legislate for the registration of optometrists on 5th December 1913. However, this was following opposition from the Australian Medical Association, which had said that “opticians (optometrists) should be properly trained as spectacle makers so they can adequately fill the prescriptions of oculists (ophthalmologists) and be subordinated to them as pharmacists were.”
