Mike Hale: What are the key takeaways from 2021 for Specsavers in the domiciliary sector?
Dawn Roberts: 2020 was obviously a challenging year for everybody. We were affected by the pandemic like everybody else, but through 2021 we have grown. We have more or less dealt with all of the backlog of patients who weren’t able to access eye care during the pandemic when it was at its worst. We have grown, and it’s not just a temporary result of the pandemic. We feel that the growth that we have achieved is sustainable because of the things that we’ve done, and the increase of the capacity that we’ve created.
In many ways the pandemic has been transformational for us. It made us change the way we do things. We had some projects that we had intended to pursue anyway, but it made us do those quicker. So we installed a new telephonist system, which made communication better. And we restructured our management and support teams, to be more effective.
I feel very proud of how our clinical teams performed throughout the pandemic. They could have thought that they were putting themselves at risk and not wanted to carry on providing the service, but we haven’t had that at all. They’ve been out there through the whole thing, doing the very best they can for the patients. It has made me really, really proud of the staff we’ve got, and the people who do this job, because it’s not the easiest job in the world.
MH: Are there other examples of changes you can identify?
DR: I think we will probably always use personal protective equipment to some extent now. I wonder why optometrists didn’t always wear masks, like dentists have done for a long time? It just feels like it is respectful to the patient to not be breathing all over them.
We do most of our meetings via Microsoft Teams. This means we interact with each other far more frequently and with our colleagues out on the road, as well as our partners, far more easily than we ever did before. We don’t just have to wait for the odd physical meeting where you see someone and everyone can’t get there, so we found that using virtual meetings has worked extremely well for us.
I certainly think that our support teams are far more effective because of Covid. I think our clinical teams are far more aware of the importance of the service they provide now. In domiciliary care, I would’ve said it to you before, there’s not a day that goes by when you don’t feel like you’ve made a real difference to people’s lives. It is difficult, but very rewarding.
Another change is that normally we would have our staff sharing vehicles. During the pandemic we had to have them travelling in separate vehicles to the same place, which perhaps might not have been great for the environment, but we couldn’t risk their health.
MH: Has Covid made more people take up a domiciliary option in eye care?
DW: It’s not supposed to be a conscious choice to use a domiciliary service, it is for people who can’t go out unaccompanied. I do think that some people who did qualify before, but always got their families to take them to the high street, as difficult as that might have been, have now realised that they can access a service in their home. They feel safer, because they’re not in a crowd of people, they’re not wandering through the town centre to get there, they’re not having that contact with other people that they’re still pretty nervous about. So I think there are people who could’ve accessed the service before, who were entitled to it but didn’t, that do now.
MH: Was coping with the backlog of patients from the lockdowns a challenge?
DR: We’ve got some small pockets of backlogs, mostly in the more remote areas of the country, where we typically don’t go very often, because there aren’t very many people there that we service. But we’ve pretty much caught up with people now.
MH: What about clinical challenges related to people going unchecked for a period of time?
DR: Anecdotally, there were people who didn’t access any kind of eye care, even though they were having difficulties with their eyes, because they were frightened about contracting Covid. So yes, there are people that are being seen who needed to be referred, who should’ve been referred sooner, for all kinds of eye conditions.
MH: How have you dealt with the need for staff to be vaccinated?
DR: Legislation changes came in on November 11 where everybody working in a care home has to be fully vaccinated. All of the Specsavers colleagues that enter into any care home or a person’s home are fully vaccinated. We’ve followed professional guidance, and College guidance, all along. We’re encouraging colleagues who are not accessing patients, and haven’t yet been vaccinated, to make an informed decision by providing them with the latest information, and asking them to read the NHS articles on websites, and to not be afraid of vaccination.