Look local: Berwick’s blurred borders

Practices in Berwick-upon-Tweed are providing private eye care to English and Scottish patients alike despite eye examinations being free north of the border. Practitioners in the town suggest this is perhaps due to the wide distance between the small communities settled in this area of the UK and their nearest ophthalmology department.

The coastal town, built on the banks of the river Tweed, is home to four practices. Despite being on English soil the small rural community’s national identity is blurred as it is located only three miles from the Scottish border. The town is 60 miles north of Newcastle and 56 miles south of Edinburgh.