Before the industrial revolution Weston-super-Mare was a nondescript fishing village on the south-west coast of England. Being only 18 miles from Bristol, Victorian entrepreneurs saw lucrative potential in the location so developed the village into a large and popular fun fair holiday resort.
While Weston’s pier, aquarium and ferris-wheel still attract domestic tourism, a regeneration project for local housing, alongside the construction of a leisure centre and cinema has coincided with an increase in the number of families in the community. Weston has become the largest settlement in north Somerset and there are 10 optometry practices in the town.
Ruth Bowering, optometrist and director at the local Specsavers, says: ‘The seaside town attracts a lot of retired people to settle and our hearcare offer is very popular. We are working towards being accredited on the IOP (intraocular pressure) refinement scheme and we are involved in talks about introducing a post-cataract scheme. However, a big regeneration project has seen Weston grow exponentially in recent years.
‘We are only a 30-minute commute to Bristol, lots of young families have moved into the area and the children’s eye care market is booming. Staff recruitment is very difficult and we’re always on the lookout for an optometrist. We also do a lot with local schools to promote optometry in the hope of recruiting more local people into the profession.’
Despite a growing community age range the difficulties in recruitment are a serious challenge to the eye care businesses. David Thomas, director of optometry and audiology recruitment at employment agency Prospect Health, says: ‘We are currently aware of 48 vacancies for qualified optometrists and dispensing opticians within 35 miles of Taunton, which gives an insight into the scale of the problem. Employees are able to demand excessive wages and take short term contracts.’
Thomas says the onus is on firms to give candidates a reason to relocate. Steph Bowen (pictured far left with Fiona Bromfield, company director), dispensing optician and practice manager at independent Bowen Opticians located near the suburb of Worle, agrees investment in making the eye care businesses in Weston aspirational is key to attracting staff.
She says: ‘When recruiting a professional you should never compromise on the right person for your practice. With this in mind we often fund professional training for existing staff who show potential. Improving our online presence has been crucial to increasing footfall and has heightened our profile in the community. Investing in an OCT machine has raised the standard of care.’
‘The shared care at referral refinement schemes which operate in Bristol do not currently extend to patients registered with a GP in north Somerset. Patients in Weston will benefit if this changes in the future.’
Who's in town
Total: 10
Independents: 7
Multiples: 3
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination range from £10 to £40. The average cost is £29.
Population - pictured left
Weston-super-Mare population: 86,322
North Somerset population: 315,806 (2011 Census)
Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, Somerset Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for Somerset CCG in glaucoma repeat readings, OHT monitoring, and minor eye conditions service.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Weston-super-Mare is estimated at £186,778 (Rightmove, 2016), compared with an average of £189,901 for England and Wales (Land Registry, 2016).
- NHS expenditure on vision problems per person in North Somerset district is £113, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- There are 10,790 patients in north Somerset with drusen-related early stage AMD, 1,760 with wet AMD, 860 with dry AMD (RNIB).
- There are 2,710 patients living in the area with cataract, 2,110 with glaucoma, 14,640 suffer from with diabetes and 4,170 patients have diabetic retinopathy (RNIB).
Fun facts
The town was named due to the number of villages then known as Weston and the coastal location, upon-sea, in Latin.
80,000 people attended the 2015 Enduro dirt bike race, pictured, on Weston’s beach.
An important communication link with the US ran from the Weston coast between 1885-1962 in the form of a transatlantic telegraph wire encased in brass.
A local museum claims to be: ‘The largest dedicated helicopter museum in the world’.
The Severn Estuary has the second highest tidal range in the world, at 50 feet, and has a tidal bore which flows upstream.