Bram Stoker’s gothic novel Dracula features the undead count in the guise of a black hound padding out of a schooner and mounting the 199 steps up to the east cliff at Whitby to St Mary’s Church graveyard. Revenue generated from local landmarks, the maritime history and long-established festivals bring a healthy level of tourist footfall past the two practices based in town – Specsavers and Vision Express.
Despite the attractions of the area, Richard Finn, the dispensing director at Specsavers, says 56% of the regular patient base consulted at the practice qualify for the free eye test charged on the GOS fee.
‘Whitby is a lovely villagey-type town, full of friendly people. Our customers like a bargain, they are not trendsetters, and are not that interested in designer brands. They love the Specsavers two-for-one concept. We are running a free sight test offer at the moment,’ says Finn.
As the buzz around frame accessories has not caught on locally due to the price of purchases, the priority of the practitioner is on providing deals and the best clinical service when visited by patients.
Finn (pictured, left) adds: ‘At the moment there are no enhanced schemes commissioned locally, although we are keen to get going. My optom partner and our other optom are accredited at Level 1 Mecs and will be accredited at Level 2 by the end of the summer.’
While the north-east of England is known to be suffering a shortage of optical professionals, the head dispenser at the multiple says: ‘Recruitment for the team is very easy, and when people join us they tend to stay for the long-term.’
The nearest independent opticians to Whitby is in Loftus, about 15 miles along the coast. John Prouse, optometrist-director at Loftus Optical, says: ‘There are relatively few independents in the area in part due to fear of launching a practice in quiet non-affluent north-east towns. If you drive through Loftus, where my practice is, it looks like a ghost town with many boarded up shops.’
However, the Loftus director says it is possible for practitioners to make a good living with the demand for community eye care in the north-east. He adds: ‘Fast forward five years after converting a dilapidated carpet shop to an optician in 2011 and I have nearly 4,000 customers and three members of staff. People come from as far as Scarborough and Middleborough, travelling over 30 miles to have an eye test.
‘Optometry in this area is not about fashionable frames, designer names and special offers. It’s all very personalised and we see only a limited number of patients a day. It’s a joy to work this way compared to a conveyer belt style of service.
‘There are opportunities all over the UK and we should not be put off by demographics and geographical location. In the words of the late great Muhammed Ali, “Don’t count the days, make the days count.”’
Who's in town
Total: 2
Independents: 0
Multiples: 2
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination range from £10 to £25 (when offers are not running on private eye test fees). The average cost is £17.50.
Population
Whitby population: 13,594 (2011 Census)
Scarborough borough: 108,223
Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, North Yorkshire Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for glaucoma repeat readings, cataract post-op, cataract referral, ophthalmology referral triage, minor eye conditions service covering Richmondshire and Whitby CCG.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Whitby is £173,470, compared with an average of £189,901 for England and Wales (Rightmove, 2016)
- NHS expenditure on vision problems per person in the borough of Scarborough is £119, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- 6,160 patients live in the borough with drusen-related early stage AMD, 990 with wet AMD, 480 with dry AMD.
- 1,530 patients live in the borough with cataract, 1,100 with glaucoma and 7,910 suffer from with diabetes, 2,220 patients have diabetic retinopathy (RNIB).
Fun facts
- Attendees of Whitby’s biannual Goth Weekend event were recently banned from St Mary’s Church graveyard for taking selfies with the headstones that feature in gothic novel Dracula.
- Captain Cook was apprenticed for three years to ship-owner John Walker, lodging in the attic at Fishburn shipyard, Whitby.
- In summer, Whitby Regatta attracts around 20,000 people over three days to attend the yacht and rowing races.
- The Lifeboat Museum, based at the foot of the Khyber Pass, displays stories of the rescues made by local lifeguards since the first lifeboat was stationed here in 1826.