Since 1 August 2008 the provision of General Ophthalmic Services in England has been subject to contracts between Primary Care Trusts and those providers (whether professionally qualified or lay) who have met certain criteria regarding premises, equipment, good character and so on (as under the old Terms of Service as amended).
(GOS sight tests are performed by optometrists and OMPs, who must be listed as performers by PCTs.) Contracts can be for ‘mandatory services’ (ie. testing in a practice) or for ‘additional services’ (domiciliary testing). Model contracts are available below as PDFs. They are also obtainable from the NHS Primary Care Contracting website.
Sight testing and contact lens fitting and supply are governed by the Opticians Act 1989, the full text of which is available at www.optical.org.uk
Under GOS there is a contractual requirement for the maintenance of full, accurate and contemporaneous records and it is the responsibility of the contractor to ensure that this happens.
The aim of the record keeping audit is to help the contractor gauge whether his performers’ records meet the minimum standard required for the GOS contract.
This guidance applies to both mandatory (GOS) services and additional
(domiciliary) services contracts.
This guidance is offered to General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) contractors in England. It will be updated from time to time.
Quality in Optometry level 1; now congruent with PCC's ophthalmic contract visit form
Preparing for a GOS contract compliance visit can be a real headache for contractors. The Quality in Optometry website run by the national optical bodies has recently been updated to assist contractors by providing extensive help and advice as to what evidence the PCT are looking for and how contractors can provide evidence that they comply with the GOS contract. This has been achieved by making level 1 of the Quality in Optometry interactive checklist completely congruent with PCC's own ophthalmic contract visit form.
Optical bodies publish new audit tool for contractor audit of performer records
As a complement to their upgrade of the Quality in Optometry website, the national optical bodies have published a new audit tool for contractors to audit their own performer records. The tools comprise a proforma and guidance and a spreadsheet to make it easier to complete audits. This is available in versions for Excel 2007 and Excel 97-2003. Optical contractors demonstrating contract compliance through voluntary audits could qualify for a lighter touch approach to external records audit by the PCT's optometric adviser.
