Updates

High quality eye care should be available to all patients, regardless of whether the service is delivered in the patient's home or traditional primary care settings - e.g. high street practice. We encourage all domiciliary providers to read and follow the Optical Confederation's Domiciliary Eyecare Committee's Code of Practice.

If you want to provide NHS funded domiciliary eyecare, please see GOS contracts.

If you are concerned that another domiciliary eye care provider has breached Optical Confederation's Code of Practice for Domiciliary Eyecare, you can ask the Domiciliary Independent Adjudicator to investigate the matter by emailing [email protected]

Other guidance

The Optical Confederation has produced a variety of guidance which is either specific to or relevant for domiciliary providers.

• Guidance for providing domiciliary optical services
• Lone working guidance
• Guidance on equipment for use in mobile ophthalmic services
• DEC position statement on visual field screening in a domiciliary setting
• Safeguarding guidance
• Cooling-off period guidance
• Pre-notification form
• Pre-notification system for domiciliary sight tests

Other sources:

• AGE UK guidance on power of attorney and consent
• Mental wellbeing of older people in care homes - NICE
• College of Optometrists guidance for examining patients with dementia
• College of Optometrists guidance for examining patients with learning disabilities
• Vision 2020 checklist for examining patients with learning disabilities
• LOCSU Pathway, people with learning disabilities 

You might find it useful to share the following resources with local patients and carers:

If you, or a person you care for, needs an eye test but is unable to visit a high street practice unaccompanied - e.g. because of a mental, physical or learning disability - you can have the test in your own home.

You can find more information in this: Guide to sight tests at home.

Optical professionals working in domiciliary settings aim to work within the principles described in the domiciliary eyecare Code of Practice. 

The Domiciliary Eyecare Committee has, together with Care England, also produced a letter to highlight to care professionals and care home managers the role they can play in helping to ensure that people living in residential care homes receive high quality, personalised eye care.

If you are concerned about how you or someone in your care has been treated by a domiciliary eye care provider, you can ask the Domiciliary Independent Adjudicator to investigate the matter by emailing [email protected].

Read the Independent Adjudicator's terms of reference.

The Optical Confederation's Domiciliary Eyecare Committee (DEC) brings together representatives from domiciliary service providers and the optical bodies (ABDO, the AOP, FODO, Optometry Scotland, Optometry Wales and Optometry Northern Ireland, and the College of Optometrists as observers). It is committed to promoting the highest standards of care for domiciliary patients and is active in lobbying for equal access to eyecare. The DEC developed and encourages all providers of domiciliary services to follow its Code of Practice.