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Please see TTOA's proposal to the Ministry of Health, along with the attachments supporting our position regarding the training and competencies of Optometrists in the UK, US, Canada , Nigeria, South Africa, etc. These are supported by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists(UK) in the their position paper from 2004 on the future of Ophthalmic primary care and the proposal for independent prescribing by non medical persons in the Crown Review and specifically for Optometrists in the MLX334-4. The formulary shows medications all optometrists in the UK are allowed to use/prescribe. These documents were submitted to the Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health Policy Advisor, Chief Medical Officer,  the Trinidad and Tobago Opticians Registration Council (TTORC), and to the Dean of the Medical School and Head of Ophthalmology. Clicking on Links will open PDF files.

Loreta Khan is the Founder and Executive Director of Today's Optical Ltd. (trading as Optometrists Today), an Optical services company established in 1989 with 7 branches located in Trinidad and Tobago.

Loreta was born in Nairobi, Kenya, the second of four children and attended St Teresa’s Girls primary and secondary School where she was deputy Head Girl in her final year. Her A levels were at Jamhuri High School for (an all-boys school which accepted six girls yearly for A levels only) where she was made Head prefect in Upper Sixth. In addition to academic excellence, she distinguished herself in extracurricular activities. Loreta was a keen swimmer who received her silver medallion in life saving and in her teens, climbed both Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya, the tallest and second-tallest peaks in Africa respectively, as part of the Outward Bound Expeditions group.

Loreta left Nairobi at the age of eighteen when she was accepted to The City University of London to study Optometry, with the cost of airfares and tuition fees covered by her father. However, with limited funds for living expenses, she began working part-time jobs at the school's kitchen to make ends meet during her studies. Loreta graduated from City University in 1978. She later qualified in 1979 as Fellow of the Scottish and British Boards of Optometrists, as well as the Spectacle Makers Company, all of which later joined to form the College of Optometrists. Her qualification then became Fellow of the College of Optometrists (FcOptom).

While at university, Loreta met her future husband, Sheriffe Khan, a fellow student of Trinidadian origin. At the time, he was reading for a degree in Actuarial Science at The City University. They married in London in 1981, where Loreta continued to work in a professional capacity specialising in contact lenses.

The young couple left London for Trinidad in 1986 along with their two sons, 3 year old Shaun and 1 year old son Simon. Loreta began her professional work life in Trinidad as an Optometrist with Imperial Optical. Two years later she co-founded J&L Optometrists in partnership with Joyce Ali, a colleague Optometrist.

In April 1989, Loreta established her own practice, Optometrists Today. The company began with just 3 staff, including Loreta, who remained the company's sole Optometrist for the first two and a half years, working as long and hard as necessary six days a week.

Twenty-three years after its inception, the ethos of Loreta's company remains grounded in her professional theme of kindness and caring for patients and staff. The mission statement of Today's Optical reads "The development of each and every member of staff to their full potential in the pursuit of total patient satisfaction for every individual walking through our doors."