The Primary Ophthalmic Services Regulations 2008

Sight tests-applications

4.—(1) An eligible person who wishes to have his sight tested may make an application for his sight to be tested to any contractor—

(a) which has contracted to provide mandatory services; or

(b) if he is entitled to mobile services, which has contracted to provide additional services.

(2) The application shall be made on a form provided for that purpose to a contractor by the PCT with whom it has contracted and shall contain a written declaration signed by the applicant to the effect that he is an eligible person.

(3) In addition, a person who is an eligible person, but only by virtue of—

(a) regulation 3(1)(d) and (2)(c) or (d), shall show to the contractor a current notice of entitlement;

(b) regulation 3(1)(e), shall show to the contractor the prescription for a complex appliance issued to him on the occasion when his sight was last tested;

(c) regulation 3(1)(g) or (h), shall, on a form provided for that purpose to contractors by the PCT, provide the contractor with the name and address of that doctor or ophthalmologist, with consent to the PCT seeking confirmation of that diabetes or glaucoma from that doctor or ophthalmologist; or

(d) regulation 3(1)(i), shall show to the contractor evidence that he is a prisoner.

(4) Where an eligible person to whom paragraph (3)(b) applies is unable to meet its requirements, the contractor may, instead of satisfying himself that those requirements are met, satisfy himself that the person is an eligible person by referring to his own records or by measuring the power of the lenses of the person’s existing optical appliance by means of a focimeter or other suitable means.

(5) A contractor shall be entitled to demand and recover from a patient or person making an application on a patient’s behalf under regulation 6(1) a sum in respect of loss of remunerative time resulting from that patient’s failure to keep an appointment.