The National Health Service (Payments for Optical Appliances) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1988

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Nati onal Health Service (Payments for Optical Appliances) (Scotland) Regulations 1986 which provide for payments to be made, by means of a voucher system, in respect of the cost incurred by certain categories of persons for the supply of optical appliances prescribed following a sight test under the National Health Service in Scotland.

The values of the vouchers for glasses (which bear a letter code varying according to the type of lenses prescribed) are increased (regulation 5(1) and Schedule 1). (The value of voucher H for contact lenses provided by the hospital eye service remains at £25 per lens.)

Increases are also made (regulation 5(2) and Schedule 2) in the values for prisms (by 50 pence each) and tints (by 50 pence per pair), and in the special minimum payment for a complex optical appliance (from £2 to £3 where it has single vision lenses only, and from £14 to £17 where it has any other lenses). New provision is made for additions of £30 for glasses with small frames, of £1.75 or £2.25 for a photochromic lens, and of £30 for glasses with specially manufactured frames. These last two additions apply only where a Health Board issues the voucher in connection with the hospital eye service.

Other amendments provide for the voucher values of glasses with bifocal lenses to be determined according to the distance segment (regulation 2(b)), for vouchers issued following a sight test under general ophthalmic services to be issued with the prescription (regulation 3), and for vouchers for glasses to be used for contact lenses (regulation 4).