HSCSA Warns Against Mobile Optometric Practices

August 1 - While the Health Professions Council of South Africa acknowledges the need for proper eye care services to rural areas of the country, it also warned about complaints it had received regarding mobile optometric practices that provided poor services to the public.

The chairperson for the Professional Board for Optometry and Dispensing Opticians, Vanessa Moodley said the public has a right to quality healthcare and the Council was mandated to protect the public from these "unethical and unprofessional" practices.

She said that optometrists, by law, have to meet minimum standards of care in order to make sure that their patients receive the best treatment.

"Mobile practices need to employ the same standards of care the public would get at a normal practice and also within the regulated framework," said Moodley. "These units are not encouraged by the Board of Optometry and Dispensing Opticians."

A number of mobile practices go against the laws governing good health care practices, including clinical negligence, insufficient equipment, incompetence and levels of care that left much to be desired.

Need for Quality Eye Care Acknowledged

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) also said: "Although the Board acknowledges that eye care services are unfortunately still largely accessible only in urban areas, and agree with the need to improve access to eye care in underserved areas, the Board views mobile services as an interim means until permanent health facilities are developed."

The Professionals Board, said Moodely, doesn't support this method of practice unless it complies with the ethical rules.  As such, practitioners who want to use this method of service need to apply with a motivation to the Board for approval before setting up a mobile practice.

"Approved mobile practices must be named and operated in accordance with the ethical rules and regulates," noted Moodley.