Non-compliance in optometric practice.

The purposes of this paper is to explore how some of the recent and future changes relating to the optometric profession could affect non-compliant behaviour among patients. Non-compliance has been widely documented and discussed in numerous health care fields and is understood to be the responsibility of both the practitioner and patient working in a health care partnership. At least one third of patients have been reported to be non-compliant with health care recommendations which can result in the poor outcome of a treatment, secondary medical problems, dissatisfaction, frustration and the wasting of health resources. In recent years contact lens complications have been linked with non-compliant behaviour with contact lens care and maintenance regimens which has led to several media scares over contact lens related hygiene risks and has heightened interest in the issue of non-compliance in the field of optometry. Shared care schemes have already been adopted in some areas of the United Kingdom and if therapeutic pharmaceutical agents are introduced to the list of drugs permitted for use by optometrists in the future the issue of non-compliance will become even more poignant. Every optometrist needs to be aware of the high probability of non-compliant behaviour among patients, the consequences of this non-compliance and the steps that can be taken to enhance compliance in different areas of eye-care.