Ophthalmic Services for Northern Ireland, Quarterly Series to Q1 2026/27 - Provisional

Accredited Official Statistics

Ophthalmic Services for Northern Ireland, Quarterly Series to Q1 2026/27 - Provisional

Published 06 August 2026

Key Facts

Key variable	This quarter	Change since last quarter (%)	Change since last year (%)
Optometrist/OMP Headcount	704	-1.4	2.9
Ophthalmic Practices	265	0.4	-0.4
Sight Tests	122,492	0.6	4.1
Vouchers	45,667	3.3	8.6
Repairs & Replacements	9,053	5.5	-8.5
LES I	333	6.7	14.0
LES II	155	20.2	-8.8
OHT	556	34.0	19.1
Post-Op Cataract Review Service	48	-61.3	NA
NIPEARS	14,683	14.6	5.4
Total Claims	192,987	2.5	4.6

Quarterly Series Tables

Download the quarterly general ophthalmic statistics by clicking on the button below. This quarterly series is a subset of the annual information with data provided for selected key tables relating to the following topics:

Claims submitted and paid by BSO by Type of Service
Sight Tests, Vouchers and Repairs & Replacements by Gender and Age Group
Sight Tests, Vouchers and Repairs & Replacements by Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust) and Local Government District
Enhanced Services LES I, LES II, OHT, Post-Operative Cataract and NIPEARS by Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust)
Outcomes following assessment in LES I, LES II, Post-Operative Cataract and NIPEARS
Enhanced Service OHT by Service Type
Monthly GOS activities and associated cost including Covid-19 payments
Number of Ophthalmic Practices by Local Commissioning Group (Health Trust) and Local Government District
Number Of Ophthalmic Medical Practitioners (OMPs) & Optometrists

The quarterly updates within a year should be treated as provisional and may be revised when figures are finalised to produce the end of year annual report.

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Quarterly data: 163KB

Trend Charts

1.1 Sight Tests in Northern Ireland

Figure 1.1a: Number of Sight Tests by Gender and Financial Quarter

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Figure 1.1a.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.1a.XLSX (8kB)

Figure 1.1b: Number of Sight Tests by Age and Financial Quarter

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Figure 1.1b.XLSX (9kB)

1.2 Vouchers in Northern Ireland

Figure 1.2a: Number of Vouchers by Gender and Financial Quarter

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Figure 1.2a.XLSX (8kB)

Figure 1.2b: Number of Vouchers by Age and Financial Quarter

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Figure 1.2b.XLSX (9kB)

1.3 Repairs & Replacements in Northern Ireland

Figure 1.3a: Number of Repairs & Replacements by Gender and Financial Quarter

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Figure 1.3a.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.3a.XLSX (8kB)

Figure 1.3b: Number of Repairs & Replacements by Age and Financial Quarter

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Figure 1.3b.XLSX (8kB)

1.4 Ophthalmic Medical Practitioners & Optometrists in Northern Ireland

Figure 1.4: Ophthalmic Medical Practitioners & Optometrists headcount by financial quarter

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Figure 1.4.CSV (1kB)

Figure 1.4.XLSX (8kB)

1.5 Total Cost of General Ophthalmic Services including Covid-19 payments

Figure 1.5: Total Cost of General Ophthalmic Services including Covid-19 payments by Payment Month

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Figure 1.5.CSV (3kB)

Figure 1.5.XLSX (10kB)

User Guidance

Family Practitioner Services (FPS) are responsible for the monthly payments to primary care Optometrists for health service treatment provided and maintenance of the ophthalmic practitioner list.

Claims Submitted and Paid by BSO: To get the complete BSO processed activity, the count of General Ophthalmic Service claims (sight tests, vouchers and repair/replacement claims) submitted and paid should be combined with the claim counts for LES I, LES II, NI PEARS, OHT and Post-Operative Cataract Review enhanced services.

Sight Tests: Adults are advised to have their sight tested every two years. Many people qualify for a free HSC General Ophthalmic Service (GOS) sight test including those in receipt of certain adult income-related passport benefits (Entitlement to General Ophthalmic Services). Entitlement for free sight tests can change over time, an example of this, is the introduction from 1st December 2025 of those in receipt of Universal Credit (subject to earnings threshold) now being eligible to free sight tests. Prior to that, those in receipt of Universal Credit were only eligible for free sight tests in conjunction with a valid HC2 certificate which is provided through the NHS Low Income Scheme. Readers should therefore be mindful of the potential impact such changes in eligibility criteria can have on quarterly figures and with respect to longer term trends. All claims are submitted to BSO for payment and, as such, the figures will not include those persons that pay for a sight test. It is also possible to have multiple sight tests during a financial year, so data do not refer to individual people unless it clearly states this in the commentary.

Domiciliary Sight Tests: The majority of sight tests are conducted at practitioners’ premises. A small proportion of tests are conducted away from ophthalmic premises. These include sight tests carried out at people’s homes, residential homes and day care centres. All patients eligible for a sight test are also eligible for a domiciliary visit if they are unable to leave home unaccompanied.

Optical vouchers: The HSC optical voucher scheme covers patients who are eligible to have Health Service spectacles and were given an optical voucher to put towards buying their own choice of spectacles, or having new lenses fitted to their existing frames or be put towards the cost of contact lenses after a sight test (health service, including secondary care, or paid by the patient) is carried out. Patients may receive a voucher for more than one pair of spectacles. Many people qualify for a free voucher including those in receipt of certain adult income-related passport benefits (Entitlement to General Ophthalmic Services). Entitlement for a voucher can change over time, an example of this, is the introduction from 1st December 2025 of those in receipt of Universal Credit (subject to earnings threshold) now being eligible to a voucher. Prior to that, those in receipt of Universal Credit were only eligible for a free voucher in conjunction with a valid HC2 certificate which is provided through the NHS Low Income Scheme. Readers should therefore be mindful of the potential impact such changes in eligibility criteria can have on quarterly figures and with respect to longer term trends.

Repairs and Replacement: A repair or replacement voucher should only be issued when there is no reason to believe there has been a change of an eye prescription. Children under 16 are eligible for repairs or replacements in cases of loss or damage without prior approval by the Family Practitioner Services (FPS). In line with the General Ophthalmic Services discretionary payments protocol, glasses belonging to adults (including students aged 16-18 years) should only be repaired or replaced when FPS is satisfied the breakage or loss was due to illness, or in very exceptional circumstances of major hardship.

Primary Care Optometry Enhanced Services: These services are designed to cover enhanced aspects of clinical care of the patient, all of which are beyond the scope of essential, core, General Ophthalmic services (GOS) and other Primary care Optometry enhanced Services.

Level I Local Enhanced Service (LES I) is an enhanced service for Intra Ocular Pressure Repeat Measures and commenced in December 2013. The aim of the Intra Ocular Pressure Repeat Measures service is to reduce the numbers of false positive referrals for ocular hypertension (OHT). This enhanced service achieves this aim by funding contractors to refine referrals by permitting payment for a repeat intra ocular pressure test.

Level II Local Enhanced Service (LES II) is an enhanced service for Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension Enhanced Case Finding and commenced in June 2016. This Level II Enhanced Service funds contractors with accredited and listed optometrists/OMPs to provide enhanced case finding by permitting payment for a defined set of clinical tests to be performed in primary care optical practices with the intention of enhanced case finding for glaucoma, suspect glaucoma or ocular hypertension and can be used for both patients who have a sight test under General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) as well as those who have a private eye examination.

Ocular Hypertension (OHT) Review and Monitoring is an enhanced service which commenced in January 2019. This scheme was expanded in August 2022 to cover a number of different service types however practices were only able to submit claims for these new services (including retrospective claims) from December 2022 for payment. The OHT Review and Monitoring Service funds contractors with accredited and listed optometrists/OMPs to perform a defined set of clinical tests. These tests are performed in primary care optical practices and can be used for both patients who have a sight test under General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) as well as those who have a private eye examination. The service enables patients diagnosed with ocular hypertension, and who are therefore at risk of developing glaucoma, to be reviewed on an ongoing basis in primary care optometry practice.

Post-Operative Cataract Review and Assessment Service is an enhanced service which commenced in July 2024. Primary care optometrists have been integrated into the regional cataract care pathway in order to streamline the patient pathway and reduce the number of follow up hospital appointments. This enables hospital eye services to allocate more appointments for cataract pre-assessment and other outpatient activity, reducing wait times. Appropriate, safe and effective care for patients can be delivered closer to home, with good patient experience. The cataract post-operative review should take place a minimum of 6 weeks after surgery and no later than 12 weeks after surgery. There are 3 cataracts centres in Northern Ireland. Currently only the cataracts centre at Downe Hospital has been referring patients out to this service and is managed by Belfast Trust. Belfast Trust to still to start referring patients out from the cataract centre in South Tyrone Hospital as well as Western Trust referring patients out from Mid-Ulster Hospital.

Northern Ireland Primary Eyecare Assessment and Referral Service (NI PEARS) is an enhanced service for Primary Eyecare Assessment and Referral Service and commenced in March 2018. Services in Northern and South Eastern LCG only commenced during the middle of 2018/19. This Enhanced Service funds ophthalmic contractors in primary care to provide an acute eye care intervention service for patients across Northern Ireland. It facilitates accredited optometrists to investigate and manage, or triage for onward referral, patients presenting with acute, sudden onset, mainly anterior and non- sight threatening, eye conditions who may otherwise visit their GP or Hospital Eye Services.

Total Payment is made up of GOS activity payments and Covid-19 payments. Individual contractors were provided Covid-19 payments to stabilise their GOS payments in 2020/21 and 2021/22. Additional payments were made each month to cover the shortfall in GOS payment in 2020/21 and 2021/22 compared with payments made in 2019/20. This included Finance Support Scheme payments and PPE payments and may incorporate financial adjustments (sometimes resulting in negative figures). PPE payments were also made in 2022/23 and 2023/24, however the value of these payments has significantly reduced and from 2024/25 they are now incorporated within the overall GOS expenditure.

Ophthalmic Medical Practitioner (OMP): An Ophthalmic Medical Practitioner is a qualified doctor who specialises in eyes and eye care. In addition to their medical skills, they are qualified to test eyesight and prescribe spectacles. They are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC).

Optometrist or Ophthalmic Optician : An Optometrist is qualified to test eyesight and to prescribe and dispense spectacles. Their training enables them to recognise abnormalities and diseases of the eye. They are registered with the General Ophthalmic Council (GOC).

A validation exercise using the General Ophthalmic Council Non Payment of Annual Fees is carried out annually around the beginning of each financial year for both the contractor and optometrist lists held by BSO. This has the potential to significantly impact counts at end of Q1 each year. In addition, Listing Reviews (LC22) have been carried out on the Ophthalmic Opticians in 2010, 2015 and 2023. This is carried out periodically at the request of Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) as illustrated in Q1 2023/24 when 44 Optometrists were removed from the list. Readers should be mindful of this when comparing figures across quarters and note that such reductions may not necessarily be concentrated in a single quarter.

For more detail consult the user guidance tab on the downloadable quarterly series tables.

About this publication

The General Ophthalmic Services Statistics for Northern Ireland 2019/20 to 2025/26 annual reports contain high-level information on Primary Care services in Northern Ireland with comparisons against previous years. Annual data is supplemented by annex tables providing more detailed information with year-on-year comparisons. The Annual reports and accompanying tables are available here.

This quarterly series is a subset of the annual information, with data provided for certain key tables. Not all tables presented in the annual report have been replicated quarterly, as in many cases there is not much change in the figures from quarter to quarter. For example, certain analysis such as proximity to services, do not change much on a quarterly basis. This publication is in a new HTML format, as was introduced for the Q4 2023/24 quarterly series, and includes interactive graphics and the ability to automatically download the data presented in the charts.

This is an Accredited Official Statistics Publication

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 – see here for further explanation of this terminology. 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’.

We have developed a series of statements to demonstrate how we meet the Code in our everyday work. These cover our independence, data quality procedures, how we make our statistics accessible whilst protecting your data, engage with you to meet your needs and, when things go wrong, how we make corrections or, should our services fall below the required standard, how you can make a complaint. All of this information is included in our Statistics Charter.

Since the assessment by the OSR, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements in 2026/27:

Figures for the new enhanced service, Post-Operative Cataract Review and Assessment Service, including outcomes, have been added to the Ophthalmic Annual publication and the quarterly series from Q4 2025/26.

Table 10.1 has been added to the Quarterly Ophthalmic publication from Q2 2025/26 showing a breakdown of the outcomes for NI PEARS claims.

Annual Family Practitioner Services (FPS) General Ophthalmic Statistics publication is now an HTML report with interactive graphics and the ability to automatically download the data presented in the charts.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. They set the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards (contact the responsible statistician listed at beginning of this publication). Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website here.

Data Quality Summary

The data has been primarily sourced from the Family Practitioner Payment System (FPPS) in respect of FPS activity and payment information. Resident population data has been sourced from official NISRA demographic statistics.

The FPPS is a business critical payment system which is subject to periodic audit. The data quality is assessed as very good based on the low percentage of claims which have to be adjusted following payment.

As an administrative data system, there will inevitably be some manual entry errors and, even for automated processes, there may be errors within the claims submitted by primary care contractors.

The extensive validation that occurs prior to payments being made, coupled with the consistency and variance checks carried out during the compilation of this publication means that the data provides a good representation of FPS activity for the period covered by the report.

A background data quality report for this publication is available. Additional details are in the FPS Quality Assurance of Administrative Data report.

Feedback

Feedback is welcome and if you have requirements for further quarterly breakdowns please email BSO_PrimaryCare.Statistics@hscni.net

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