After months of debate and acrimony, the Department of Veterans Affairs has ended a five-month-old policy that permitted O.D.s to perform laser eye surgery at its healthcare facilities.

In August, the VA began permitting optometrists who had licenses authorizing laser eye surgery to perform those procedures under the supervision of an ophthalmologist.

However, a VA panel with representatives from both optometry and ophthalmology was unable to reach an agreement on how this supervision would actually take place. As a result, the VA rescinded laser surgery by optometrists in mid-December.

The decision I made to rescind optometrists privileges is a reluctant one, said Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Anthony J. Principi. Since experts could not come up with an implementation plan agreeable to both specialties, I chose this path to protect the interest of veterans.

The decision to rescind privileges includes O.D.s who are licensed in Oklahoma to perform laser surgery.

In February 2004, Veterans Affairs put a moratorium on laser surgery by optometrists. This, after strong lobbying from a powerful group of medical organizations called the Veterans Eye Treatment Safety Coalition, which includes the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and the American Medical Association, among other organizations.