On the banks of the river Thames sits a peaceful town, chosen by generations of English royalty as the perfect parish for a manor. Others have followed suit since and the area remains a haven for a community of 14,000 people, with high streets, rowing clubs and fine dining with a double Michelin star winning gastropub.
There are four practices in town, including: Leightons Insight, Boots, David Clulow and independently owned practice, Stewart-Robinson JA.
Martin Lloyd (pictured below), joint owner and director of Leightons Insight Opticians, says: ‘It is much nicer when you’re on first name terms, than working in a practice all day with people you have never seen before. We have a loyal customer base and that’s probably an advantage of being in a smaller type market town rather than somewhere like Oxford Street in London.’
The practice’s frame racks are stocked with recognisable brands such as Wolf, Ray Ban, Lindberg, William Morris, Flexon, Prodesign, Silhouette, Modo, Chloe, Tom Ford and Oakley. Lloyd says: ‘Our products are good quality and throwing deals at patients was never the route we wanted to go down. We don’t offer free eye tests to anyone because we don’t want the quality of our service to be downgraded. People are coming to us and not the chains.’
Competition is hot between the four local practices for generational footfall but recruiters Prospect Health say it has been a challenge to lure practitioners into the rural town, being 34 miles from the capital.
Martine Levine, head of marketing at the recruitment firm says: ‘We have had a dispensing optician job in Marlow advertised for over a year now and we have found it particularly hard to recruit for. The glut of practices and job opportunities, particularly around the north London area, makes the proposition of commuting to a job in Marlow even less attractive. As a beautiful and desirable place to live, the house prices are also high so this puts practitioners off relocating to this area.’
Meanwhile, Luke Elias, director of recruiting firm Vivid Optical adds that this is not the case for the wider county of Buckinghamshire: ‘As optometry is a geographically led industry, the less populated areas are even harder to find quality individuals. However, Buckinghamshire is slightly different to the coastal regions or other ‘hard to find’ areas. Due to its proximity to London, the county as a whole doesn’t suffer too badly in terms of sourcing good quality candidates.’
Representing NHS Buckinghamshire LOC and LEHN executive committee, Bruce Gilson says: ‘All practices in Marlow have access to the same referral pathways as the rest of Bucks. As far as we know, they have chosen not to participate in the direct cataract referral scheme or the IOP referral refinement scheme. We are pressuring the commissioners to retain and expand the IOP referral refinement, as well as beginning to talk to them about commissioning a Mecs scheme. The direct cataract referral scheme seems to be working well.’
Who's in town
Total: 4
Independents: 2
Multiples: 2
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination range from £25 to £40. The average cost is £31.75.
Population
Marlow population: 14,004 (2011 Census)
Wycombe district: 173,834
Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, Buckinghamshire Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for glaucoma repeat readings and cataract referral at nearby CCGs Aylesbury Vale, Chiltern, and Milton Keynes.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Marlow is £561,136, compared with an average of £189,901 for England and Wales (Rightmove, 2016).
- NHS expenditure on vision problems per person in the wider district of Wycombe is £87, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- 7,040 patients live in the district with drusen-related early stage AMD, 1,090 with wet AMD and 530 with dry AMD (RNIB).
- There are 1,700 patients living in the Wycombe district with cataract, 1,630 with glaucoma and 10,910 suffer from diabetes, 3,400 patients have diabetic retinopathy (RNIB).
Fun facts
- Sir Steven Redgrave, the most successful male rower in Olympic history, was born in the town.
- Mary Shelley completed Frankenstein at Albion House in Marlow.
- William the Conqueror gave the town, which is 15 miles from Windsor Castle, to his bride Queen Matilda.
- An Edwardian bridge crossing at Marlow over the Thames, pictured above, was the prototype for the Szechenyi Chain Bridge that crosses the Danube in Budapest.
- In Three Men in a Boat, the popular novel, writer Jerome K Jerome states: ‘Marlow is one of the pleasantest river centres I know of.’
