Data and Statistics

General Ophthalmic Services and NHS Optical Vouchers

Data and statistics on the provision of General Ophthalmic Services and NHS Optical Vouchers in Scotland can be accessed via the following links:

 

Ophthalmic Workforce

To support workforce and service planning, a National Ophthalmic Workforce Review report was published in May 2023, covering those involved in the provision of NHS eyecare services in Scotland. A further update on this report, looking at equivalent data from 2022 and 2023 for just community optometry, was published in January 2025.

In addition, organisations from across the UK’s eyecare sector, led by the College of Optometrists, have collaborated to launch the UK Eye Care Data Hub. This workforce planning tool forecasts the number of people expected to have a wide range of eye diseases and conditions and models the future eyecare workforce, by UK nation and region, over the next 15 years.

 

Visual impairment

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) website has a Sight Loss Data Tool that provides information about sight impaired and severely sight impaired people and those at risk of sight loss at a local level throughout the UK. It collates a wide range of publicly available datasets and allows users to view local area data in a report or as data tables.