Each of Skipton’s half dozen optical practices has a different perspective on how to deliver eye care.
The North Yorkshire town has an ageing but affluent community but because it’s a hub for tourists heading to the nearby Dales national park there’s also a certain amount of passing trade.
The importance of this trade is underlined by Laura May, the owner of Laura May Opticians: ‘Skipton very much relies on the tourist industry. We sell a huge variety of frames and accessories to tourists. This is a fashion-conscious town and style is paramount when it comes to dispensing here.’
However, she is also aware that despite the value of visitors for local businesses, the settled population expects a community-minded service. The practice reports dispense values ranging from NHS vouchers to £800 for top-end Zeiss lenses. May estimates that 60% of its patients claim eye exam fees on the NHS.
[CaptionComponent="2590"]‘As the practice grows we are gaining more private patients,’ adds May. ‘We stock many frame ranges that aren’t available in most high-street practices. I’m in contact with frame manufacturers and suppliers that don’t work on a huge scale, which makes our range of frames original.’
Conversely, Justine Sturtivant, dispensing optician at Skipton Specsavers says the multiple attracts a different patient base.
‘In terms of frame selection our customers tend to be conservative,’ she says. ‘The men are typical Yorkshire blokes. They will point at the first frame and say: ‘‘I’ll have two of them’’. We are seeing more interest in our designer ranges, but more so from women.’
Sturtivant estimates that only 30% of Specsavers Skipton patients claim eye exams on the NHS.
She says: ‘Due to the affluence of the town our customers are predominantly private. The typical customer would probably be 40-something with children. There are a lot of older people living in Skipton, but we pick them up less than the other demographics because they tend to be very loyal to their original opticians.’
[CaptionComponent="2591"]Sturtivant says recruiting high quality optometrists is sometimes a challenge: ‘Although we are not far from Bradford, Keighley seems to be as far as the graduates want to travel. Nevertheless, we are able to tailor our service to the needs of the town, for example, opening early works well for our customers. We offer late night appointments and we are also the only optician to open on Sundays.’
Specsavers runs a work experience programme for students from local schools in Skipton and is hoping to support one candidate through optometry school.
A practice apart
Liz Ellis has worked for 23 years at local independent Benjamin Opticians and is now the owner. She has grown staff numbers from five to 17 and moved the business away from the high street to larger premises. The practice runs 16 clinics a week with three testing rooms. It was the first practice in Skipton to acquire an OCT machine.
Ellis says: ‘With changes in lifestyle through technology and an aging population, we’ve introduced dry eye clinics. We are working closely with Thea Pharmaceuticals Group on ways of looking after patients through advice and eye supplements.’
Fun facts
• In 2014 Skipton was named by the Sunday Times as the best place to live in Britain.
• Skipton is Anglo-Saxon for ‘sheep-town’.
• Skipton was the last northern stronghold of the royalists in the English Civil War.
• Skipton Building Society was founded in 1853.
• Skipton Market operates under a Charter granted by King John over 800 years ago.
• The co-founder of Marks and Spencer, Thomas Spencer, was born in the town in 1858.
• The first section of the Leeds-Liverpool canal (pictured) was opened at Skipton in 1773.
Who’s in town
Total: 6
Independents: 3
Multiples: 3
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination (including OCT) range from £22.50 to £44. The average cost is £27.60
[CaptionComponent="2592"]Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, the North Yorkshire Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for cataract post-op and referral, minor eye conditions service, ophthalmology referral triage, glaucoma repeat readings and OHT monitoring
Health and affluence
• The average house price in North Yorkshire is £181,033, compared with an average of £189,901 for England and Wales (Land Registry)
• Craven NHS expenditure on vision problems per person is £123, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015)
• The percentage of people living with sight loss is 5.45%, compared to UK average of 4.07% (RNIB)
• 3,220 patients live in Skipton with early stage wet AMD; 530 with late stage wet AMD and 260 with dry AMD (RNIB)
• There are about 800 patients living in the town with cataract; 580 with glaucoma and 4,130 with diabetes. 1,130 patients have diabetic retinopathy (RNIB)
