In the Macron Law under discussion, an amendment makes the prescription for glasses optional and removes its period of validity. Ophthalmologists are headlong.
It’s a big blow for ophthalmologists! The Special Commission of the National Assembly confirmed and extended this week the scope of the amendment of the senator of the Alpes-Maritimes, Dominique Estrosi-Sassone (UMP), which gives a boost to the activity of opticians, at the detriment of visual health, according to these medical specialists.
The opticians future prescribers?
In a Press release published this Wednesday, SNOF (1) recalls its concerns about the debate on the Macron Law which has been the subject, since Monday, June 8, of a second reading examination in the National Assembly.
The union is in particular up against the Special Commission of the National Assembly which has just confirmed the abolition of the prescription obligation when purchasing glasses, “opening the way, for opticians, to prescription-sale eye devices to children under the age of 16 who have never seen a doctor. “
A risk for the prevention of eye diseases
Worse still, the SNOF deplores the deletion in the Public Health Code of any mention relating to a maximum period of validity for prescriptions for glasses. The rapporteur of the Macron law, Richard Ferrand, thus dealt “the final blow to the French eye health system”, write these trade unionists.
Thus amended, the Macron bill exposes the population to two major problems, thinks this union. On the one hand, “the French will no longer be able to benefit from the screening and health prevention of eye diseases guaranteed by check-up appointments with the ophthalmologist. The SNOF reminds that 80% of treated glaucomas are detected during these visits. On the other hand, “the French will find themselves directly confronted with opticians and eyewear manufacturers, without medical training, who will combine the functions of prescribing and selling medical equipment, which poses serious ethical and health problems – in particular for young or fragile patients. “
Next examination in session from June 16 to 24
Dr Thierry Bour, president of SNOF, concludes: “if the Macron Law is passed as it is, it is the end of eye prevention. Most glaucomas will no longer be detected in time and opticians can prescribe glasses to a 5-year-old child who has never seen an ophthalmologist. We are heading towards an unprecedented health catastrophe! », Warns the ophthalmologist.
Faced with this situation, he launches a final appeal to French deputies to reinstate the prescription obligation for glasses during the examination in session of the bill from June 16 to 24.
(1) National Union of Ophthalmologists of France
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