Publication of Family Practitioner Services General Ophthalmic Statistics for Northern Ireland 2023/24

The Health and Social Care’s Business Services Organisation (BSO) has today published its Family Practitioner Services General Ophthalmic Statistics for Northern Ireland 2023/24. 

This Accredited Official Statistics report contains high level summary information on activity and payments in relation to General Ophthalmic Services. Information is provided at NI level with further breakdowns presented at both Local Commissioning Group (LCG) and Local Government District (LGD) level.

The publication is available on the Business Services Organisation’s website at General Ophthalmic Services Statistics - Business Services Organisation (BSO) Website (hscni.net)

Key Points

The key points from the 2023/24 report are:

 Ophthalmic Services

• In Northern Ireland, there were 264 ophthalmic practices at the end of March 2024 with 686 Ophthalmic Practitioners registered with BSO to provide Ophthalmic Services. Whilst these figures represent increases of 2% in practice numbers since 2014, and 13% in practitioners since 2017; both figures are 2% lower than in March 2023.
• At Northern Ireland level, 94% of the population live within five miles of an ophthalmic practice, with at least 85% of the population living within three miles in more urban LGDs.
• There were approximately 467,000 health service eye tests carried out during the year, an increase of 5% from 2022/23. Over the year, total sight test activity was still 2% below the series high recorded in 2016/17.
• For every 5 sight tests provided during the most recent year, 4 were for children under age 16 or patients aged 60 and over. Moreover, females were more likely to receive a health service sight test than males, with 25% of the female population attending a test during the year compared to 21% of males.
• For children under 16 and adults over 60 groups which are exempt from payment, the proportion of the population attending a sight test in the last 3 years is lower in the most deprived areas than in the least, by 5 and 10 percentage points respectively.
• There were approximately 178,000 optical vouchers to be used towards glasses or contact lenses processed in 2023/24. Approaching half (46%) were for children under the age of 16.
• In terms of Enhanced Services, during 2023/24, 56% of Level I assessments and 39% of Level II assessments resulted in an onward referral.
• There were 49,652 unique assessments at the Northern Ireland Primary Eyecare Assessment and Referral Service (NI PEARS), a 9% increase on 2022/23. Of these, only 39 were for remote consultations.  The vast majority of assessments (90%) were first assessments with the remainder follow-ups.
• During 2021/22, the latest year for which comparative figures are available, Northern Ireland carried out around 22,897 health service sight tests per 100,000 population.  This was 6% fewer than Wales and 2% greater than England.  However, the rate for Northern Ireland was 43% lower than that for Scotland, which offers free sight tests to its population every 2 years.
• In 2023/24, the cost of primary care ophthalmic services in Northern Ireland was over £25.3 million, an increase of 7% on 2022/23. The average cost per head of population in 2023/24 was £13.30, 9% higher than in 2017/18.

Notes to editors: 

1. This is the fifth year that General Ophthalmic Services Statistics for Northern Ireland has been released as a standalone report.  This information was previously included as part of the FPS compendiums published in 2017/18 and 2018/19. This report was produced by the Health and Social Care’s Business Services Organisation (BSO) which was specified as an Official Statistics producer body under the Official Statistics Order (Northern Ireland) 2012. It provides the definitive source of figures on BSO FPS General Ophthalmic Services activity and finalises the provisional quarterly figures which have been released over the course of 2023/24.

2. These official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in May 2022. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’. All accredited official statistics should comply with all aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics. The OSR considers whether the statistics meet the highest standards of Code compliance, including the value they add to public decisions and debate. These statistics were considered as part of a wider assessment of the BSO Family Practitioner Services statistics.

3. Family Practitioner Services (FPS) is responsible for annual payments to primary care contractors including GP Practices, Dentists, Opticians and Community Pharmacists on behalf of the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG). In 2023/24 this figure was just over £973 million.

4. The data relate to BSO’s General Ophthalmic Services payment and volumes claimed and have been sourced from administrative systems. It is important to note that, unless otherwise stated, figures relate to the year in which a payment claim was processed by BSO and this may not necessarily coincide with when the actual activity took place (i.e., some claims from a previous year may be processed in the current year whilst, conversely, some claims relating to activity in the current year may not be processed until a later year).  Ophthalmic activity figures do not cover private work, prison activity or secondary care activity.

5. Primary care statistics on the number of ophthalmic practitioners are taken from lists of performers registered to provide these services. The lists maintained by BSO provide a headcount rather than full-time equivalent figures so take no account of differences in hours worked or changes to practitioner working patterns over time.

6. Whilst a number of UK comparisons have been included in the report, there can be important differences in how services are delivered between countries that can impact on the figures. The relative size of the private sector in the delivery of primary care services within each country will be a particularly important factor in this regard so care needs to be taken when interpreting any inter-country differences in HSC activity levels.

7. The cost of primary care ophthalmic services is based on the annual assurance information supplied by the Business Services Organisation (BSO) to the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) for each financial year. The figure for 2023/24 includes £55,936 of expenditure for prisons following a new prison contract being introduced in May 2021 with funding transferred to the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (formerly HSCB) within the Department of Health.

8. The report itself presents high level summary information with all of the detailed data tables consigned to the accompanying Excel appendices. The figures are prepared and released by independent NISRA statisticians working within BSO’s FPS Information Unit.

9. Quarterly updates for 2024/25, for key report tables, will be released on a provisional basis on the FPS section of the BSO website General Ophthalmic Services Statistics - Business Services Organisation (BSO) Website (hscni.net). These will be added to the historic quarterly series. The timetable for the release of the quarterly updates will also be published on the BSO website and all publications, both quarterly and annual, will be formally announced on the UK.Gov release calendar https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements

10. Electronic copies of the Bulletin and associated Excel tables are available free of charge from: General Ophthalmic Services Statistics - Business Services Organisation (BSO) Website (hscni.net)

Accredited Official Statistics

These are Accredited Official Statistics and therefore comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.  Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Further Information

For further information please contact:
Information Unit
Family Practitioner Services
Business Services Organisation
2 Franklin Street
Belfast BT2 8DQ

11. For media enquiries please contact the DoH Press Office by email pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk.

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