IOA Spring Update

Greetings from sunny Scotland! The weather is beginning to change from a bitterly cold snap with lots of snow to longer, brighter days.

2021 began in the UK with a return to various states of lockdown in England and the three devolved nations of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. At the time of writing, this is now opening up as rates of infection continue to decrease.

The promise of better days to come is becoming a reality with mass vaccination programmes underway, priority in the UK has been given to the most vulnerable – the aged, those in care homes and their nursing and caring staff and of course those on the front-line delivering healthcare services. For us being opticians, we have been more fortunate than many to have been in the first groups to be vaccinated against COVID.

Temporary Vaccination Centre in Aberdeenshire/ Photo: NHS Grampian

Two of my optometrist colleagues I work with in practice have volunteered as vaccinators involved in the rollout of the mass vaccination programme as have many allied health professionals across the country and indeed across the globe to vaccinate as many of the population as possible and ease some of the current restrictions we are living with and a return to a new way of living, post Covid. Rising infection rates within some of our near neighbours in Europe highlight that we are not emerging from this pandemic any time soon.

The IOA Board met in early February – it will be no surprise to you all that it was a ‘virtual’ meeting! With Board members scattered across the globe there really was no other way we could meet, international borders being closed and only essential travel permitted.

One challenge we did of course face was the fact that we are all around the world was when was the best time to hold it? Between us we spanned 18 time zones so for some the meeting was on Tuesday and for others it was on Wednesday! For some it was early morning, others late evening and for Elaine and I in the UK – the middle of the night!

We had a good meeting – sharing experiences from our home countries – even though we are far away from each other geographically - we are close in the experiences we have had during the past year. Without exception we were all able to contribute in some way to opticians whether in our home nations or further afield during the past year. Many of us were working in practice or supporting opticians by delivering online education, advice and guidance or by being a friendly voice at the end of a phone.

With a full agenda we began to take tentative steps to looking towards the future. With international travel still seemingly some way off we are exploring the possibility of hosting an IOA online event later in 2021 – the format has yet to be decided but it is hoped that there will be an opportunity for members to engage in some online education and forum to meet with Board members and supporters. We also discussed our Biennial Summit – postponed from 2020 in Bangkok – which looks like happening now in 2022 due to the ongoing travel and quarantine restrictions. When we have more information on both the Virtual Event in 2021 and our face-to-face event in 2022, we will of course share details with you all. All of the Board are very excited by both these events and the fact that we will be able to meet with IOA members for all across the world!

One event all IOA members can be a part of is the 2021 IOA International Optician of the Year. This award hosted in conjunction with our industry partner Silmo and recognises an outstanding Optician each year. More information can be found about the IOA Optician of the Year on the IOA website and details of how to nominate an Optician will be available there shortly too.

The winner of the inaugural IOA/Silmo International Optician of the Year was presented to Canadian Optician, Robert Grimard at the Silmo D’Or Ceremony at Silmo Paris in September 2018. Robert embodied all that an outstanding optician was. Sadly, the IOA reported his death early in 2020.

Robert Grimard, Inaugural IOA/Silmo International Optician of the Year. Photo: Optik.ca

So, watch this space. The IOA is back: spring is in the air and in our step - we are all set and looking forward to engaging with you all, for the time being virtually but hopefully face to face in the fullness of time.

Yours aye

Fiona