Visus Writes: The practice of loss-leading eye exams is dangerous

Mandy Rice-Davies is mostly famous for a single quote, ‘well he would, wouldn’t he?’. This is a quote that might be directly applied to last week’s Optician columnist Jamie Buchan of Specsavers Arbroath.

Roughly translated his assertion was a righteous indignation that ‘free or discounted sight tests had to be paid for in the form of an inadequate ocular examination’. I’ll leave aside the mixed terminology, a sight test is statutorily defined and consists of a minimum contracted standard and an ocular examination is, well, what, exactly?

Keen readers will remember that Mr Buchan is listed as retail director of Specsavers Arbroath and does not appear on either the optometrist or dispensing optician register maintained by the the GOC.