Laser clinic rapped by watchdog

A laser eye clinic, which boasted that it had 'the enviable record of correcting the most eyes with the lowest level of complications', has been warned by an advertising watchdog.

Advanced Laser Eye Clinic was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland (ASAI) by two rival refractive surgery providers, Belfast's All Clear Clinic and Dublin's Wellington Eye Clinic.

They objected to a leaflet distributed in the Dublin-based Evening Herald newspaper in September last year publicising Advanced and its clinics, which are based in Belfast, Dublin and Glasgow.

Both complained that there were no published figures on the number of complications arising from treatment for any clinics so it was impossible to make comparative claims.

The Authority agreed and has noted the decision to withdraw this statement from future advertising for Advanced.

The ASAI also agreed with the complainants over the advertisement's implication that Irish patients could expect to be treated under the care of eye surgeons on a full-time basis, whereas the actual position was that there was one full-time eye surgeon who split his time between three clinics, only one of which was in the Republic of Ireland.

One of the complainants, All Clear, stated to the Authority that it 'currently receives as many as 20 referrals per week from Advanced Laser in Belfast whose equipment was not as advanced as that of All Clear'.

The Authority answered: 'While the number of referrals to other clinics may not have been as high as 20 per week [we] were satisfied that at least one named clinic had a later model of a laser, with more extensive software, than that used by the Advanced Laser Eye Clinic, and in the circumstances their claim to have invested in the latest technology does not appear to have been substantiated.'

However, three other complaints made by the Wellington Eye Clinic regarding the leaflet were not upheld.