Ophthalmologists are the ultimate team leaders of all professionals involved in  delivery of eye care. In order to be able to deliver the best possible service to our patients; we need to have commensurate control and influence over how we work.
Behind this comes years of training and effort at continued professional development.
Standing on the shoulders of great men like Ridley we deliver the greatest medical miracle in modern medicine and can do so not because it is simple but because it is complex. And having given the world cataract surgery we are not stopping there, ophthalmology is likely to be the first to succeed to treat disease using gene therapy.
If we allow the attitude that we are disposable and that we can be replaced by a series of technicians, this progress will come to a halt. What would the great men of ophthalmology think of us if we were to let this happen.
We serve our patients; they need us to be free to give them the best possible treatment, now and in the future. We will cure them sometimes, alleviate their suffering often, and comfort them always.