You are right, though. There's nothing wrong with an optometrist with state of the art equipment and facilities. As an aside, my mom always had me go to an ophthalmologist when I was a kid. Keeping this non-political, with the medicare system in this province (and my mom having worked many years in health care, so she knew the tricks), an optometrist was a visit where the patient would have to pay cash (or have private separate insurance). Because an ophthalmologist was an MD, it was treated like an ordinary visit to a specialist MD, in other words, covered. So, an eye exam at an optometrist would cost money, yet a visit at the higher qualified ophthalmologist was (and is) free. Nowadays, you have to get a referral to see an ophthalmologist, unless your appointment was booked within about a year of your last visit.