The following is an announcement from Optometry Australia (OA) regarding the state governments’ closure of all “non-essential” services due to Covid-19. 

FROM OPTOMETRY AUSTRALIA  
 

The Federal Health Minister, the Hon Greg Hunt, has confirmed to Optometry Australia that optometry practices can currently remain open (if they wish). 

There has been significant, conflicting advice from the Australian and state governments in the last 24 hours about what constitutes ‘essential services’. We have received confirmation from the Federal Health Minister, the Hon Greg Hunt, that optometry practices can currently remain open (if they wish). 

We expect there may be further announcements that may impact optometry in coming days and weeks and hope to have positive news in the near future about telehealth and Medicare opportunities for optometry. 

We believe we have a duty to support you to protect the health of your colleagues, patients and communities. To this end we are seeking to advise governments on how time-sensitive and emergency optometric care can continue to be provided, should more extensive service shut-downs be mandated by governments in order to limit the further spread of COVID-19. 

We recognise that some practices, and some optometrists, may choose not to continue to provide optometric care at this time. Please see our website for details on employer and employee rights and responsibilities in these contexts: www.optometry.org.au/practice-professional-support/patient-practice-management/clinical-advice-and-practice-notes/. 

We urge all of you to continue your efforts to support your colleagues and patients by practising best practice infection control and monitoring regular updates on our website. 

As your professional body we continue to work hard to support you through this very difficult time and we will increase our communications to keep you up-to-date with the most relevant and accurate information we can access. This will include material on business continuity packages that are available to small to medium businesses as announced by the Morrison Government yesterday. 

We hope you all remain healthy in this challenging time and don’t forget to visit www.optometry.org.au regularly where you will find Covid-19 information. Our Member Support team is also available on (03) 9668 8500 or you can email national@optometry.org.au.