IMPORTANT! Support Drop-in Session Tuesday 9th June – OFNC Survey

Urgent: OFNC Survey 2026

North Yorkshire LOC Advocacy & Action

• Performers: If you are a performer, please ensure your practice contractor completes this.
• Contractors: The more responses the OFNC receives, the stronger our collective voice will be when advocating for fairer remuneration and recognition of the additional, unpaid work so many of us carry out daily.

* The survey is completely confidential, and responses will only be used in aggregate, non-identifiable formats.

📅 Deadline: Monday 22nd June 2026

📋 What You Need to Complete the Survey

To help you complete the survey efficiently, please ensure you have the following to hand:

1. Your ODS Code: If you do not know it, you can search the NHS ODS Portal here.
2. An estimate of your NHS patient proportion.
3. A clear picture of clinical and admin work completed outside the standard NHS contract.

Consider how much time your practice spends on unfunded “goodwill” activities, such as:

• •
  Referral Refinement & Diagnostics: Repeat tests to reduce false-positive HES referrals (e.g., IOPs, fields).
  Note: This is exactly what the Glaucoma Referral Refinement (GRR) pathway should be utilised for in North Yorkshire—please contact us if you need further info on this.
• •
  HES Avoidance: Monitoring patients with dry AMD or stable naevi rather than referring, or performing dilation/cyclo specifically to refine or avoid a referral.
• •
  Unfunded Technology: Offering advanced diagnostics (e.g., OCT, fundus photography) purely to improve referral quality to HES without reimbursement.
• •
  NHS Admin & Red Tape: Navigating NHS mail, eRS/ERS platforms, dealing with rejected referrals, or responding to ad-hoc info requests from HES triage or GPs.
• •
  Patient Management & Counselling: Detailed discussions regarding myopia management, dry eye advice, patient choice, and managing the scheduling impact of ‘Do Not Attends’ (DNAs).
• •
  PCSE Overhead: Unpaid admin time spent chasing payments or navigating system downtime.

💡 Key Considerations to Reflect On

When completing the survey, please reflect closely on the following commercial and operational realities:

• The Future of Goodwill: If GOS fees continue to fall behind inflation, how likely is it that you will have to phase out these additional, unfunded clinical services?
• Future Initiatives: Would you be willing or able to undertake future unfunded NHS initiatives (like ERS) under the current financial model?
• Rising Operational Costs: Consider the reality of your increased overheads, including staffing, admin/head office costs, professional subscriptions, loan repayments, and premises costs.

💻 Join Our LOC Zoom Support Session

To support you through this, the LOC is hosting an informal online drop-in meeting for all local contractors and performers. This is an open space to discuss the survey, share your local experiences, or ask questions.

Join the Zoom Meeting