Letters | Optometrists should be part of the core team at district healthcare centres
- Readers discuss the need for Hong Kong to make vision care more accessible, the call to protect Victoria Harbour, the celebrity culture and its potential for exploitation, and how Biden’s support for Israel will affect his chance for re-election
The Hong Kong public would benefit from an expansion of publicly funded services to include more health professions. These include the services highlighted in the Primary Healthcare Blueprint, such as district health centres (DHC) and public-private partnership programmes. I am excited by the progress already achieved in the effort to increase the accessibility of healthcare services.
However, as proposed hubs for healthcare services and resources, DHCs should include all primary care providers in the directly accessible core team. Currently, optometrists are absent, alongside dentists and Chinese medicine practitioners, even though some allied health professionals are included, such as physiotherapists.
Whether on the grounds that optometrists are primary care providers or that allied health professionals are already included, optometrists’ services should be directly accessible to the public through each DHC’s core team.
This can be achieved in several ways. One point of reference is the Jockey Club Cadenza Hub, which provides directly accessible comprehensive eye assessments and diagnoses by optometrists. With this already successful operating system in mind, DHCs may consider including one part-time or full-time optometrist in each of the 18 districts.
To ensure the most efficient distribution of resources and limit unneeded expenses, the optometrists can provide their services through appointments, being available on a specific day every week for face-to-face assessments and consultations at the DHC or even remote consultations.
