In the first of a new Optician series looking at practice in local communities, reporter Saul Sebag visits Barnet to find out more about a suburban borough straddling 33 square miles of north and outer London that is host to approximately 79 optician practices. He interviews Shyam Divani, the young local owner of small but established independent, Style Eyes Opticians, who highlighted the significance of the local practitioner to a culturally diverse and highly populated UK community.
AMONG THE ANTIQUES
Practicing near the epicentre of Barnet is Style Eyes Opticians, a small modern-looking independent made up of a dispensing-reception area and a consulting room. It opened 14 years ago on a terraced parade and sits alongside the local chemist, the post office, and an antique store just off the dense congregation of multiples on the Barnet High Road. Current owner Divani, who is still in his twenties, is a lifelong resident of the area having grown up in nearby Southgate and acquired the practice in 2012. He employs a small team made up of two part-time staff, one permanent and himself as the optometrist.
[CaptionComponent="2138"]The average complete dispense value in the practice is £200, with Tom Ford the highest selling brand. It charges £25 for a private eye test and the practice approximates that this price accounts for 40% of the business, while 60% are NHS patients. The draw of Style Eyes to locals, in Divani’s view, is the benefit of patient-practice continuity.
‘Here our test time is 30 minutes,’ said Divani. ‘And most of the multiples’ [on High Street Barnet] testing time is 20 minutes; so we give more time. We have a small team so customers don’t have to explain themselves every year when they come in.
‘For the last four years my patients have just seen me as I don’t use any locums. There is no other optometrist apart from myself. The unique point [of Style Eyes] is that customers like the fact that they can walk in and talk to me, not just for an eye test but also for advice on any small issue and I’m always here.’
A CLOSE COMMUNITY
Divani, who took over the practice four years ago, stated that approximately 90% of his patients ‘live on the roads nearby,’ and visit his practice because ‘they come here to get their errands. People all seem to know each other because it is quite a close community. Also I was brought up in this area. I live round the corner and because of that I think there are a lot of people who know me who come to the practice.’
He also said that about 70% of these patients were inherited from the previous owner and have continued to attend. Meanwhile, the 30% of new patients are evidence of growth.
On this Divani said: ‘The number of eye tests are going up, we are busier and the higher turnover shows the main growth. As a small practice it’s never going to be a steep rise, as this is not a high street, so footfall is a lot less. People come here for a reason and are not passing by and walking in.’
Divani also has his eye on the community’s cataracts. ‘There are a large number of patients that are over 60,’ he said. ‘We haven’t actually got any enhanced services running in the practice but we do intend to possibly introduce a cataract pathway.’ Style Eyes Opticians is committed to offering a personal touch in an otherwise anonymous London area. Its continued growth suggests that the provision of an old-school, community-orientated practice is still very much appreciated amid the cut and thrust of city life.
[CaptionComponent="2139"]FUN FACTS
• The area traditionally held a large local horse fair – leading to the word ‘barnet’ becoming cockney rhyming slang word for hair
• The 1471 Battle of Barnet (above) marked a decisive turn in the Wars of the Roses
• There was a recent movement to make the borough sound classier by changing the name to the French-pronunciation ‘Barnét’
• Barnet is home to approximately 36,000 trees, the second highest tree population in London
• Brent Cross in Barnet was the UK’s first US-style out-of-town shopping centre, built in the 1970s
WHO’S IN TOWN
Total: 79
Independents: 62
Multiples: 17
AVERAGE COSTS
Prices for a private eye exam among nine practices contacted ranged from £10 to £31, with an average cost for the basic exam standing at £23
FACT FILE
London’s second most populous borough, with 356,386 residents in the 2011 Census.
Between 2014 and 2021 it is projected that population will increase by 27,000 to 391,500 
COMMUNITY EYE CARE
According to Locsu data, the Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for cataract referral and minor eye conditions.
1,866 cataract operations were carried out in 2007, among the 43,115 operations in London overall (Office for National Statistics)
HEALTH AND AFFLUENCE
• Life expectancy at birth: males 80.2 years, females 84.3 years (ONS)
• 70% of population employed (National Neighbourhood Statistics 2013) (ONS)
• Median house price by dwelling type terraced (dwellings) £385,000 (ONS)
• 25,000 Barnet residents aged 18 plus are categorised as obese, 15.4% of the population versus the national average of 24.5% (NHS Information Centre for Health and Social Care)
