At issue is an old claim from a group of professionals who carry out more than two million consultations annually and are responsible for more than 70% of prescriptions for glasses and contact lenses in Portugal, according to the association.
Quoted by Lusa, Raul de Sousa said that the regulation of the profession “is a commitment that has been made by all ministers since 2012 and that he wants, “due to the urgency of the issue”, to be fulfilled in this legislature.
President APLO said he was “very concerned” about the impact of the law published in the Diário da República that changes the statute of the Order of Doctors. Raul de Sousa also highlights article 96A, where he states that “the exclusive exercise of diagnostic, prognostic, surveillance, investigation, medico-legal expertise, and clinical coding are acts specific to doctors”.
In this way, the president APLO fears “catastrophic” consequences if the two thousand optometrists who practice in Portugal see “the exercise of their profession interrupted” and adds that “more than 500 students are studying this profession”.
Research and the national economy are other concerns of the association, which recalls that there are more than four thousand businesses, namely opticians, which, said the president, “are worth more than 200 million euros”, as well as five factories producing ophthalmic lenses. in Portugal who “depend on the actions of optometrists to survive”.
