I was recently asked to contribute to a supplement on myopia mangement for Optometry Today. The section I added to was on early adopters. It’s a huge global health issue which seems to get no mainstream media coverage yet. The link to the whole article is here.

As well as trying to stop prescriptions increasing (and therefore reduce risk of various eye diseases) there is now a move to look at prevention with pre-myopes. These are primary school aged kids and the main answer is time outside - which has a lot of other health benefits too (physical and mental), as well as the the potential sight saving goal.

In our country health funding always seems to be fire fighting and prevention/public health initiatives always sit behind the in your face issues - like waiting at A&E and trying to get a GP appointment. But, a time outside for young people policy really does seem to be one of those things that ticks so many boxes - especially if it led to making safe and enjoyable active travel a possibility for kids on the way to school.

How we approach pricing is an important part of our philosophy. We want it to be simple, up-front, transparent and visible in the shop and online.

We hate what we call Ry***ir prcing - where you think you are going on holiday for £70, but when you add on all the things that should not really be add-ons it’s way, way more.

We also dislike offers that you get excited by and then find it doesn’t quite apply to you - hence our 25% off additional pairs lasts for a year.

And no traffis!

Get very good A'level results, acquire an optometry degree, pass OSCEs and then one of the first things said to you is for you to get your testing time down. That creates the real danger of focusing on quantity over quality - which won't serve your patients or you well.

A lot of optometrists hate the time pressure and the pressure to meet the sales targets, but also feel there is no option to that way of working. Let's face it, the dominant model in the UK is the rammed, rolling 20 minute clinic, where a lot of eye tests are done in a lot less than 20 minutes - where you will be under pressure if you don't meet the sales/KPI expectations.

We don't work like that - we do slow optometry. Quality not quantity.

It is working as we need more optometry cover, now we have created a brand new bigger space here in Sheffield.

We are a fully independent opticians - it's a shrinking cohort. But, we resist the offer to join the new big groups as being independnet means we do things the way we think is right - no HQ in Lancashire telling us what to do in Yorkshire.

If you fancy a chat about being an optometrsit here, drop us a message.