I agree we need longer testing times, at least 25-30 min. Its very difficult when you have difficult patients, and it often stops me making recommendations. If a person has no change and I’m running late, I’m not going to discuss trying contact lenses, or if they want a spare pair of glasses, because I’m trying to get them out the door as soon as possible. Its counter-productive to rush us.
I’m also finding a lot of practices are adding more stuff for us to do in the test, the Boots lifestyle form for example.
I think testing times should be required to be longer, but maybe they should reflect the patient base a bit more. Its a bit odd that a practice full of NHS patients and elderly people has the same test times as a practice full of young people and contact lenses.