New survey finds Oklahomans overwhelmingly opposed to non-medical doctors performing eye surgeries.

OKLAHOMA CITY - A new survey released today finds that nearly nine out of ten Oklahomans strongly oppose any law that would allow anyone who is not a medical doctor to perform surgery with a scalpel on patients' eyes.

A combined 93.4% of Oklahomans oppose non-medical doctors from performing eye surgeries with a scalpel. Of those, an overwhelming 88.4% strongly opposed the idea.

SoonerPoll.com, a public opinion research firm in Oklahoma City, conducted the telephone poll of 502 statewide likely voters last Wednesday and Thursday for Quality Health Care for Citizens Inc. The margin of error for the survey was 4.4%.

Opposition was strong regardless of gender, party affiliation or area of the state.

An overwhelming number of Oklahomans (94%) felt it was very important to them, if they or a family member needed eye surgery, that the eye care specialist performing the surgery was a licensed medical doctor.

On March 10th the Oklahoma Board of Examiners in Optometry approved a rule granting optometrists the authority to perform more than 100 eye surgeries with scalpels and needles. Currently, it is before the state legislature to approve or rejects these rules.

"There are very few issues where so many diverse Oklahomans so strongly agree or disagree on a particular issue," said Bill Shapard, President of SoonerPoll.com, "but this is certainly one of them."