The ability to prescribe and offer needs-led examinations based on clinical circumstances outside routine eye care was initially a surprise to some of my patients, who were typically directed by fellow primary care health professionals to attend their local optometrist in the first instance for eye health-related concerns. Clearly more needs to be done to emphasise optometrists as first contact practitioners for all eye care concerns to the public (MacIsaac et al, 2022 ) but, at least locally, I have certainly noticed a shift in patient decision-making when it comes to their eye health since NHS-funded schemes became available. There are now over 1,700 independent prescribing (IP) optometrists on the General Optical Council register and this number is growing, perhaps toward a critical mass that would increase the perception that optometrists truly are GPs of the eye, similarly to how our dentist colleagues are viewed for all dental health-related matters.