Public confidence in opticians high, survey reveals

Public confidence and satisfaction with opticians continues to be high, according to the General Optical Council’s 2019 public perceptions research.

The research findings encompass a range of topics, including where patients would go if they had an eye health problem, their views on the quality of care, the frequency of contact with opticians and their views on complaint handling.

An important finding which emerged from the research, said the regulator, was that 32 per cent of respondents said they would see a GP first if they woke up with an acute eye health problem – compared to 25 per cent who said they would see an optician.

Geographical analysis of responses showed significant differences across the nations. Respondents from Scotland (34 per cent), Wales (33 per cent) and Northern Ireland (28 per cent) were all more likely to say that they would visit an optician first when compared to respondents from England.

Alistair Bridge, GOC director of strategy, said “We are pleased to see that public confidence and satisfaction with opticians remains high; 96 per cent of patients reported they were satisfied with the optician who had carried out their eye test, and 94 per cent were satisfied with the overall experience of opticians.

“It was also positive to see that of those patients that did experience something going wrong, three-fifths had received an apology. Each year this number has increased and we look forward to seeing further improvement in this area.

“We encourage all of our registrants to read the research report and learn from the insights.”

Key findings in the survey include:

• 46 per cent of respondents viewed opticians as providing both a healthcare and retail experience
• 69 per cent of respondents had visited an optician in the last two years
• 13 per cent of respondents had experienced anything going wrong with the care they received from an optician, and 58 per cent of those had received an apology
• 90 per cent of respondents were confident that they would receive a high standard of care from an optician

A total of 2,000 members of the public were surveyed. An infographic and the full research report can be found on the GOC website.