LettersOptometrists should be part of the core team at district healthcare centres
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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.