Patient Membership Programmes are the way forward for independents says Iris Visioncare

Patient membership programmes (PMPs) are regularly touted as the saviour of independent practice. At a stroke a PMP can improve cashflow, place value on professional fees, retain patients, increase footfall and much more so why doesn’t every independent use one?

Peter Noakes, the driving force behind Iris Visioncare, is perhaps better placed than most to provide an answer. Noakes isn’t a pushy, sharp-suited financial-type but the kind of affable and committed independent optometrist many might characterise as an ‘old-style’ independent.

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Noakes qualified as an optometrist in 1975 from Aston and bought his first Plymouth practice from a retiring owner in the city’s Crown Hill four years later. Back in the day that first practice saw 1,500 patients, since then Noakes has built a six-strong group along with two partners. Now, Noakes, Habermehl and Kerr’s six practices see over 12,000 people around the Plymouth area.