Prevention, access and sustainability: Looking ahead to Scotland’s healthcare priorities
Following the UK Budget on 28 October, attention now turns to Scotland’s own spending priorities, with the Scottish Government due to publish its 2027/28 Budget on 3 December.
Against a backdrop of continued pressure across public services, the Scottish Budget will set out how investment is prioritised across key areas, including health and care.
While much of the discussion around healthcare funding understandably focuses on hospital capacity, waiting lists and acute services, prevention and care delivered closer to home should also remain central to the conversation.
For Optometry Scotland, this means recognising the role community optometry already plays in supporting Scotland’s NHS, and the opportunity to build further on that contribution.
Scotland has long been recognised for its approach to community eye care. Since 2006, universal NHS-funded eye examinations have allowed patients to access essential eye health services within their local communities, supporting early detection, ongoing monitoring and timely referral where required.
This year, as we marked 20 years of General Ophthalmic Services (GOS), we reflected on how far Scotland’s eye care model has developed.
Community optometry is now an established part of Scotland’s healthcare system, with an expanding range of care delivered in the community through services including the Community Glaucoma Service (CGS) and General Ophthalmic Services Specialist Supplementary (GOS SS).
The value of this model extends beyond individual appointments.
Early identification and management of eye conditions can help prevent avoidable sight loss, while enabling appropriate patients to be managed within community settings can support better use of specialist hospital services and capacity.
At a time of increasing demand across the NHS, community optometry should therefore be viewed not simply as another service requiring investment, but as part of the solution to wider pressures.
Scotland already has an established network of community optometry practices and highly skilled professionals providing accessible eye care across the country. Protecting and developing that infrastructure requires sustainable funding, sufficient workforce capacity and effective pathways between community and hospital services.
There are also opportunities to improve the support available to patients beyond diagnosis and treatment, with more joined-up, person-centred care delivered closer to home.
Our ongoing work on Community Low Vision Services has highlighted one such opportunity. Through engagement with policymakers, stakeholders and people with lived experience, Optometry Scotland has continued to emphasise the need for more consistent and accessible support for people living with sight loss.
Developing services such as these demonstrates what can be achieved by making greater use of the expertise and infrastructure already available within communities.
As the Scottish Budget approaches, the challenge will be to balance immediate financial pressures with decisions that support better long-term outcomes.
For community eye care, that means recognising both the value of the services already being delivered and the opportunities to strengthen patient pathways, support the workforce and expand access where gaps remain.
Scotland has spent two decades developing a community eye care model with accessibility and prevention at its heart. The next chapter should ensure that progress is sustained and that community optometry continues to play a central role in Scotland’s wider healthcare priorities.
Investing in prevention is not simply about meeting today’s demand. It is about creating a healthcare system better equipped to meet the needs of tomorrow. For more information on Optometry Scotland’s policy work and current priorities, or to share your views, please contact the OS office at office@optometryscotland.org.uk