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.
