Multiple turns a blind eye to discounting

A story in this week's edition about a patient with only one eye requesting a half price eye examination raises an interesting debate.

The patient, David Rainsford, has received half-price eye exams in the past and says only half the normal number of checks are needed.

Specsavers, meanwhile, insists that for a thorough eye exam to take place a fixed price must be charged. This is especially important, it says, for patients with prosthetic eyes.

That said, were the firm to know Rainsford's story would make the pages of the local newspaper, perhaps a compromise might've been reached. We will never know.

Ironic though perhaps that in the age of the high street discounter, the cost of excellent clinical care is cited as the reason for fixed costs for all patients.