Optometry the big questions: views from new AOP Councillors

Optometry the big questions: views from new AOP Councillors

As the optometry profession continues to develop at pace, OT  spoke to three of the AOP’s new Council intake. All about their thoughts, goals and concerns.

Challenges and successes, professional progression and crystal ball-gazing predictions. OT puts three of the AOP’s newest designated Council members in the hot seat. Here Erica Campbell-Walker (representing Scotland), Ankur Trivedi (representing Independent prescribing optometrists). And Priya Tanda (representing pre-reg optometrists), share their views on the direction of the profession.

The here and now

What issue in optometry is most important to you right now – and why?

For Scottish optometrist of 20 years, Campbell-Walker, the upskilling of professionals is the most important issue for optometry right now. In order to ensure the profession is well-positioned to adapt to the evolving healthcare landscape.

Getting this right will ensure that “optometrists and dispensing opticians have the resources, skills and support necessary to provide high-quality, patient-centred care so that patients have access to local enhanced healthcare services that meet their current and future needs,” she told OT.

Representing IP optometrists, Trivedi is an optometrist of more than two decades who has already embraced upskilling. Gaining his IP qualification in 2014. For him, the most important thing for the profession right now is for professionals to be able to “fully utilise the training and experience they have in order to deliver care to the best of their ability.”

This is really important he said because “the skills that you develop during training can be easily lost if they are not utilised.”