Keeping up care for children

‘During the pandemic, children’s eye examinations were put on hold in Northern Ireland completely, especially in the first 12 to 14 weeks,’ Mark Mackey tells Optician.

The optometrist and co-owner of Mackey Opticians shares that his Belfast-based practice provided like-for-like replacement spectacles to children for breakages or losses, which were organised by phone.

‘We were fortunate that our main supplier, Hoya, operated throughout the pandemic and we had one of our three glazing lab technicians working on a part-time basis throughout, especially in the first few weeks,’ he explains.

With most practice staff furloughed, the four director optometrists covered all 13 practices for an hour or two a day depending on where the emergencies were. ‘We saw a few children with eye problems over the period, mainly conjunctivitis which could sometimes be diagnosed and managed remotely over the phone with photographs emailed through or viewed on FaceTime. The vast majority of emergencies were adults as our local eye casualty moved to appointment or referral only and we got to see a much wider raft of pathology as a result.’