For the first time since 2015, the Department of Health and Social Care has agreed an increase in GOS sight test fees.
Effective from 1 April 2021, the GOS sight test fee will increase by 1.9 per cent – rising to £21.71 from the current £21.31. For domiciliary sight tests, the additional fees become £38.27 for the first and second test, and £9.58 for the third and subsequent tests.
The GOS CET allowance and the pre-registration supervisors’ grant for 2021/22 will also increase by 1.9 per cent. CET payments will increase to £584 for CET undertaken in 2020, and claimable in a window from 1 July to 31 October 2021, and the grant to pre-registration supervisors will increase to £3,762.
Though welcomed by the Optometric Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC), the GOS sight test increase is viewed as still falling short.
The fees for GOS sight tests in England were last increased in April 2015 by one per cent. Since then, the sector has seen five consecutive years with no fee increase, while contractors’ costs have continued to rise.
The OFNC had pressed for urgent action to address the widening gap between NHS sight test fees and inflation, and the relative underfunding of primary eyecare compared to other NHS care.
Paul Carroll, OFNC chair, said: “The 1.9 per cent increase, welcome though it is, does not fully address the erosion of GOS fees by inflation in recent years.
“After five years without any increase to reflect the rising costs of care, a 1.9 per cent increase in GOS fees now will understandably disappoint a loyal and hard-working sector, which has gone the extra mile in keeping eyecare services running over the past year when hospital care was often just not available.
“Nevertheless, we take it as a signal that the government and NHS England have at last understood the value of primary eyecare – and the need to move towards fairer treatment of GOS contractors in the future.
“We hope this is the first small step on a journey to a properly funded national sight-testing infrastructure to help meet growing eye health need, focus on prevention and deliver more care outside hospital closer to home,” Paul concluded.
Read the OFNC’s full response on ABDO’s England policy page.