Having appeared and continued to develop different public actions related to a specific sector in optometry, with claims that pretentiously include all the Portuguese optometrists, it is up to me, as a defender of the Portuguese optometrists that associate with UPOOP\u00b4s interests, to make a brief clarification to the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optometry was not created in Portugal by the Professional Union of Portuguese Opticians-Optometrists (UPOOP) to confront orders and associations of other professionals. Rather, it was created to help the Portuguese population have access to visual care (glasses, contact lenses, and visual therapy) in a universal and proximity way, and in 1979 oversaw around 400 ophthalmologists. These visual cares, to us optometrists, should not be confused with medical acts, but rather with optometric acts, defended and regulated in many countries of the world, having them complement each other to the ones of the specialized doctors and never trying to replace them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To us, it is a reason for an internal disciplinary sanction whenever any member tries to pass as a doctor in the moment of their optometric practice. This way, and with all due respect for any other professional that by any chance were already here before us, we can implement our profession by raising the level of knowledge through the creation of professional courses, polytechnics, and university students in the optometry and optics area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To the associations and other institutions that see themselves as being the only representatives and interlocutors in Portugal and in the international organizations in the questions that relate to a future regulation of our activity, UPOOP has this to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 UPOOP is the founder of all the European associations that defend optometry, being a part of many others worldwide<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 UPOOP helped finance all the courses, I reenforce, all the optometry courses that exist in Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 UPOOP was the only entity in Portugal that achieved the main state agreements that recognized optometry in effect for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 UPOOP was the first entity to present a regulation project to the political leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the contrary to the misinformation that some people insist on publishing, I should say that UPOOP is a main actor in the outlook of optometry in Portugal and that no regulation will be viable to the refuse of all the people involved and interested in it, including obviously UPOOP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I will not let there be confusion between the part and the whole. UPOOP is profoundly against considerations that might be made about medical statutes trying to create a ruckus in the public opinion. As a matter of fact, from hundreds of associations in the health area that exist in Portugal, I have still only seen one talk about this matter. At UPOOP we do not pretend to be confused with doctors and because of that we choose to be optometrists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We will not let them meddle in the lives and decisions that only matter to the UPOOP members, just like we will not let the reverie of some run the many years of work in the name of optometry through the mud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Optometry in Portugal turns 45 years old this year and, imagine, that is the same number of years that UPOOP turns this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Henrique Nascimento
OD, Esp, MSc, PhD
UPOOP President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Optometry in Portugal turns 45 years old this year and, imagine, that is the same number of years that UPOOP turns this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[151,150,149],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1181,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1179\/revisions\/1181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}