International Optometry: OCANZ

As a proud member of the NZAO, I fully support New Zealand optometry supporting our colleagues in other countries, through the World Council of Optometry and closer relations with Australian optometry. In fact, I am the current NZ delegate to OCANZ - the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand.

OCANZ meets annually, but of course its work carries on throughout the year. Its job is accrediting optometry schools in Australia and New Zealand, so the courses taught reflect what a graduate optometrist needs to know in a current, western health system. This benefits patients as well as governments, as they can be assured that Australasian-trained graduates are taught to the highest standards. Another facet of OCANZ is providing a path for overseas-trained optometrists to register in the two countires, to ensure that their skills and knowledge are equivalent to those of a local graduate.

Some countries teach their eyecare professionals to a lower level than we do, and in some countrie, what we think of as "optometry" doesn't exist, and eye doctors perform the functions we do, or refractionists provide prescriptions for glasses. So, an overseas person needs to show that his/her course is fundamentally the same as the Australasian courses, then to sit a series of exams to the same level as our graduates do.

It is fascinating to learn how many styles of optometry there are, but what is appropriate in one country might be a stepping-stone to better eye care for its people whereas western health care is expected by its citizens to be of a higher standard. Patients used to ask me why I participated in VOSO trips to the Pacific Islands, giving away free spectacles and being part of a team providing free cataract surgery. And I explained that these people had nothing, so a pair of glasses, donated, and not necessarily new or to their correct script, was better than nothing...but in NZ, they expected to at least make the driving standard!

OCANZ meets in Melbourne on 2 October, and I am looking forward to being there and doing my bit to ensure that the standard of practitioners registering in Australia or New Zealand remains as high as our populations expect.