I seem to be booked for a Home Eye Test from 'Outside Clinic' for the 12th Feb. Had no verbal contact from Optometrists other than just filled an online form in. They send out flyers that look like an NHS letter.
I am supicious..
They look legitimate, contracted to do tests the same way specsavers etc are, they have a listing on the NHS website
But I wouldn't expect an unsolicited appointment.
Sounds like have requested the appointment by that online form.
Yes, they do that, it is a little bit naughty.
And i'm pretty sure they should only be offering domiciliary service to people who genuinely cannot get out*, is this clear on the letter?
SCAM
But how good are the NHS checks on traditional optometrists who claim for home visits? There are enough "housebound" people who used to demand GP home visits (when the GPs did them fairly willingly) but then turned out to be at the hairdresser's when the GP arrived.
The form asks "Do you find it difficult to get to the high street optician without help or assistance?" If you say no it says you're not eligible for free NHS visit, but can pay £30 if you want.
Hard to say.
The NHS is being fleeced from several angles by the optical industry though, it could do with a thorough looking into.
Good to hear they are being transparent.
I wouldn't want to sit in an optician's shop for half an hour during Covid.
You'd be surprised at the extra lengths we (some, perhaps not all) are going to to provide as safe and sanitary an environment as possible.
Things are nothing like they were a year or so ago in our gaff.
What do the rules say? Has the visit to be "necessary" or just "convenient" for the NHS to pay up?
I'd be most surprised if a home visit could offer all the facilities you'd get at high street shop?
I'd say to be avoided unless no option.
Given all the NHS seems to pay for is the test itself, how?
There is always the possibility of someone walking in the shop with an asymptomatic Covid condition. (not sure if they all are infectious though)
What do you anticipate would not be available.
Well, I bet the big static machines get better views and photos of the retina than portable tools. Also the field of view testers.
Are there portable "puff-test" machines for ocular pressure?
Yeah, Not entirely risk free I concur. Infinitely safer than a supermarket trip though.
It's one at a time, PPE all round, 15 minute cleanup between customer* (seating/equipment etc), everything they've tried on gets sterilised, we're testing ourselves regularly (FWIW though cos our tests are the lateral flow ones), only seeing people where there's a need rather than dragging them in just because they are due.
*The profession hates that term and prefers patient. I don't like it personally.Many opticians would prefer we were for the most part shut down and getting handouts like last April and onwards. I dunno, i've never been part of the claim culture but it's moot because we *are* allowed to open, hence can't get funding and we need to eat.
And the reason we are allowed to open almost as normal in case anyone is interested is that during the first lockdown opticians were supposed to have a locked door and deal with genuine emergencies only, treat basic stuff or triage, so that fewer people visited A&E. But some within 'Britains Most Trusted' just couldn't help themselves and were going to see people routinely anyway. This caused an outcry in Optician Land and the professional bodies, who haven't really the weight to take them on backtracked, moved the goalposts shamelessly and history was literally rewritten.
Necessary.
Not really to be fair. Not the photos taken in a standard test.
There's portable ways of doing this.
Yes, in fact we've got one in practice now, a hand held thing with probes. The puff of eye test was deemed dangerous at the beginning of the pandemic as it creates an aerosol of tear fluid and we were told not to do it.
We've since been told we can when every practice in the land was faced with a 3 grand spend and kicked off.
(Just after we'd spent 3 grand) It's much more comfortable though and people prefer it.
I'm not pissing on your point, just bored and thought i'd chuck some facts in.
No closer to them than being in a shop or supermarket. Probably less. Everyone kept well apart. Not allowed in without a mask. That was my experience on last visit.
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