NZAO: working together for Kiwi optometrists

We are working extremely long hours and consulting with each other and the relevant government organisations to ensure the advice we provide protects the safety of the public and our members and contributes to the elimination of Covid-19.

Please remember that many of us are also practice owners and share your stresses with regards to the closure of our businesses. We also have families and households to care for and children to home school.

Our ability to provide updates is constrained by the fact that we must ensure the recommendations we give follow the advice of the government. We have met online with the MoH yesterday to contribute to their development of Level 3 guidance for health professions and they will be releasing their guidelines over the next few days. Any alternative sources of information can be misleading and add to confusion.

The guidelines that have been produced allow the public to access services at Level 3, but the MoH is very strongly advising that this be kept to virtual means as much as possible. This may mean some innovation is required from the members of our profession to get our patients through. But if it is possible to provide virtual services we must do so, even if it’s just a temporary measure for a few weeks. It is imperative to limit physical contact at Level 3 as we are not out of the woods just yet.

Please refer to the NZAO Covid-19 guidelines for up-to-date information as these will be adjusted as new information becomes available from the MoH.

Kia kaha
Rochelle van Eysden

NZAO president

On behalf of the NZAO Council

To review the current NZAO guidelines for optometrists for Alert Levels 1 to 4 as they currently stand, please go to www.nzao.co.nz/user.