Optometric practices and practitioners in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa*

Abstract

This paper presents findings of a survey of optometric practices and practitioners in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province. Questions on demographics of practitioners, equipment, clinical practice andbusiness profile were included in the questionnaire. Also, issues that have the potential to impact on optometric practices were contained in the questionnaire and these include medical aid, advertising, continuous professional development (CPD) and emigration. Of the 117 completed questionnaires, 55% were from females and 45% were from male practitioners. The respondents included 55% Indians, 27% Whites, 17% Blacks and 1% Coloureds. The majority of practices were located in urban areas (90%) and rural areas (10%), and were mostly independent (67%) and franchises (33%). Only a minority of the practices had major diagnostic equipment such as visual field analysers (33%) and corneal topographers (7%). A significant proportion of the practitioners reported not routinely performing non-contact tonometry (45%) and slit lamp examination (41%) respectively. The majority (95%) rated patient’s needs as a very important factor in their decision to prescribe an optical device. A significant proportion (38%) of the practices had annual patient bases of above 33 000, with 35% having an average of 51-100 new patients per month. A few (5%) practices reported gross monthly turnovers of above R400 000, and 27% reported turnovers of less than R60 000. Many (89%) derived 41% and above of their total revenue from spectacle lens sales and 11% derived 41% and above from contact lens sales. The majority (92%) of practices were contracted to over 60% of the medical aid schemes. Many (68%) reported that they were not negatively affected by medical aid fraud committed by their colleagues, however, a significant proportion (32%) reported the converse. More than half (54%) of the practitioners reported that they used the print media