Local eye-care professionals are fighting back against new legislation that would end a restriction that only opticians and optometrists can sell eyewear, and strip a requirement for British Columbians to visit an optometrist for an eye health exam before buying eyewear.
"I can't imagine a world in which this proposed legislation actually passes," said optometrist Dr. Grant Wood from Wilson Creek's FYI Doctors. "I just can't imagine it."
Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon has characterized the changes to the Health Professions Act, which would enable British Columbians to purchase eyewear over the Internet without consulting either an optometrist or an optician, as a way to keep pace with technology.
"With advances in technology and more consumers turning to the Internet, it makes sense to modernize a decades-old system to give British Columbians more choice while maintaining public safety," he said in a statement.
But Wood counters by removing the requirement for British Columbians to get eye health tests before purchasing eyewear, the government is dangerously downplaying the risk of eye disease.
"The most important thing is that people, if they feel a little bit blurry, the government is going to set up a system that says, 'Look you can just go and get yourself glasses because there's really going to be nothing wrong in your eyes,'" Wood said.
Wood compares this situation to the purchase of glasses 100 years ago, when people would visit a jeweller and select glasses without expert advice, simply based on their age decade.
Wood said that eye health exams are critical, as they can reveal health conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure, as well as serious -and initially asymptomatic - eye diseases such as glaucoma.
The B.C. Association of Optometrists has also voiced strong opposition to the changes, citing a 2003 study in the Canadian Journal of Optometry which found that one in seven people who visit an optometrist will have an asymptomatic eye disease.
But Falcon said individuals should regulate their own eye health exams.
"Exam frequency should be determined by individuals in consultation with their optometrist or family physician, not mandated by government," he said.
Wood countered that by removing the preventative element of eye tests, and relying on individuals to come in when they're showing symptoms or deem it necessary, optometrists will lose much of their ability to head off eye disease when it's still curable.
"Right now I get a lot of satisfaction in finding something when it's a little problem, before a person knows," he said. "That's what I like. That's when I know that I've really done a good job. I can go home feeling like my patients are going to be able to see until they're a little old man or a little old woman."
Local optician and director of Sechelt's InSightful Visions Susan Ferron said the part of the legislation that enables anybody to sell eyewear often backfires for buyers who buy on-line.
"I, as a licensed optician, cannot even release contact lenses into somebody's hands without seeing them in their eyes," she said.
But on-line sellers aren't held to a professional code of ethics, she said, and aren't accountable for delivering the correct prescription.
"They're legally not responsible for [customers'] eyes. And we see this all the time. [People's] health is being compromised and there's no one legally being held accountable," Ferron added.
While Falcon attributes the legislative changes in part to consultations with stakeholders which he says the Ministry carried out in 2004, Wood said the key changes to the legislation have occurred without consulting eye professionals.
"It hit us all broadside," he said. "It would be like making new legislation on how to build bridges, but not talking to engineers."
And Nicholas Simons, MLA for Powell River -Sunshine Coast, said he's already received 650 emails lobbying against the change in legislation.
"I've never received more mail than on this subject," he said. "The big issue here is that the evidence from people who are in the know suggests this is going to leave a lot of people who should get their eyes tested not getting their eyes tested."
