Contractors who have not submitted by the closure date will be contacted regarding their outstanding return.<\/p>\n
If you require support with your submission, please contact the NHS South West Optometry Team.<\/p>\n
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office have issued an Amber Heat Health Alert for the South West of England, in effect until 9:00pm on Sunday 12 July 2026.An amber alert indicates that high temperatures are likely to impact the wider population and place additional pressure on health and care services.While optometry practices are not directly affected by medicine storage requirements, practices should be mindful of the impact of hot weather on patients, particularly those who may be older, clinically vulnerable or at risk of dehydration.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
Key messages for practices to share with patients include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Stay well hydrated and avoid prolonged sun exposure during the hottest parts of the day.<\/li>\n
- Be aware of the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heatstroke, including dizziness, headaches, confusion and dehydration.<\/li>\n
- Patients with respiratory conditions, including asthma, should ensure they have access to their regular medication as warm weather and high pollen levels can exacerbate symptoms.<\/li>\n
- Check on vulnerable family members, friends and neighbours during periods of extreme heat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Practices may also wish to display or share Government and UKHSA resources to support public awareness of staying safe in hot weather.Above all, please ensure that practice teams take regular breaks, keep work areas as cool as possible and stay hydrated throughout the heatwave period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reminder: Ophthalmic Payments UAT Testing Closes 10 July 2026 A reminder that\u00a0User Acceptance Testing (UAT)\u00a0for the updated\u00a0ophthalmic payments system\u00a0is currently underway and remains open until\u00a0Friday 10 July. Practices and providers are encouraged to complete their testing, if they have not already done so, to help ensure systems are ready ahead of the go-live date and … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “Latest News from Dorset LOC – 09 July 2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":916,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/916"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":696,"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.loc-online.co.uk\/dorset-loc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}