Newport is fast evolving into an eye services hub. During the industrial revolution its proximity to the river Usk, the coast and mine shafts of the South Wales valleys created a major area for coal exports and steel production in the UK. Despite losing its core industries the borough has adapted and has a diverse metropolitan population, leading to its city status being granted in 2002. There are 12 optical practices in the city.
Sali Davis chief executive of Optometry Wales says the Welsh government’s employment of a chief optometric adviser has facilitated a working relationship with the profession in Newport to move beyond the restrictions of the 1948 NHS terms of service for general optical services.
For example, first reported in Optician, with funding from the Welsh government the Austin Friars Eye Treatment Centre has been developed through collaboration between Aneurin Bevan University Health Board and Newport Specsavers. The Ophthalmic Diagnostic Treatment Centre (ODTC) aims to provide an additional 1,600 eye appointments this year. Its goal is to ease the hospital waiting times for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) assessments, diagnosis and treatment at Royal Gwent Hospital by providing screenings in a practice near a Newport shopping centre.
‘The centre was the first of its kind in the UK to see a high street optician provide initial screening and referrals for people with symptoms of wet AMD, and the results are reviewed virtually by a hospital-based ophthalmologist to speed up the process of diagnosis and referral for treatment from the same high street location,’ adds Davis.
Another practice in Newport providing community services is independent Julian Davies Opticians. The practice has a contract to deliver a glaucoma diagnostic screening. Each month around 60 to 80 patients are assigned to the practice by hospital consultants that must be seen within 28 days. Patients are checked with glaucoma tests, along with threshold fields on 3D optic disc photographs and pachymetry, and results are available for the consultant ophthalmologist to review in a virtual clinic.
Chris Tannorella (pictured left), the practice’s director-optometrist, says: ‘This service so far has worked extremely well. The hospital eye department still retains final clinical management of these patients but it means patients are seen when they are due, at a location closer to home where they do not have to wait for long periods. Their feedback has been exclusively excellent and patients seem to prefer this way of monitoring them. From the point of view of the ODTC practice, it is great to have the variety of examinations to keep things interesting for those working in the practice. A steady flow of new patients sent to our practice is also an additional revenue stream.’
Who's in town
Total: 12
Independents: 9
Multiples: 3
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination range from free to £32. The average cost is £22.95.
Population
Newport population: 146,558 (2011 Census)
Community eye care
According to Optometry Wales, 87% of optometric practices are accredited to deliver the Eye Health Wales Examination (EHEW), which enables practices to treat minor and some acute eye care conditions, refine referrals that would ordinarily have to go into secondary care, see patients pre-cataract surgery, monitor suspect glaucoma and ocular hypertensive patients.
Health and affluence
- Average house price in Newport is estimated at £160,075 (Rightmove, 2016), compared with an average of £189,901 for England and Wales (Land Registry, 2016).
- NHS expenditure on vision problems per person in Newport is £86, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool).
- There are 5,860 patients in Newport with drusen-related early stage AMD, 910 with wet AMD, 440 with dry AMD (RNIB).
- There are 1,400 patients in the city with cataract, 1,240 with glaucoma, 8,980 suffer from with diabetes and 270 patients live with diabetic retinopathy (RNIB).
Fun facts
Newport Transporter Bridge is one of only such operational bridges left in the world.
Wales’ first billionaire Sir Terry Matthews, pictured, owns Newport’s Celtic Manor Resort that hosted the 2014 Nato summit.
St Woolos cathedral is said to have been established by Newport’s patron saint: a 5th century warlord prince who was instructed by a dream to build a Christian church in penitence.
Newport Wetlands is known for goldfinches, bearded tits, dunlin, redshank, and oystercatchers.
Michael Sheen is a Newportonian.