Dear Respected Colleague. Optometrists play an important role in being the first stop at eye care. However lasers and surgery should not be performed by them. I have seen far too many patients that have been mismanaged and have lead to devastating loss in vision. For instance, Glaucoma that has been poorly managed. Lack of education given to patients. I have seen patients that have had toxic side affects from medication, again robbing them of their vision. The goal of patient care is patient safety, not about how many procedures can be performed in a state. By allowing optometrist to do lasers when they haven’t had a formal training in what goes behind doing surgery, the potential complications that could arise and also managing those complications if they do arise, will affect quality of care and will lead to devastating consequences. I urge you to refrain from expanding the scope of lasers and surgeries to optometrists so as to prevent sight threatening complications. 

Sincerely, 

your local Virginia Ophthalmologist