Practices in Berwick-upon-Tweed are providing private eye care to English and Scottish patients alike despite eye examinations being free north of the border. Practitioners in the town suggest this is perhaps due to the wide distance between the small communities settled in this area of the UK and their nearest ophthalmology department.
The coastal town, built on the banks of the river Tweed, is home to four practices. Despite being on English soil the small rural community’s national identity is blurred as it is located only three miles from the Scottish border. The town is 60 miles north of Newcastle and 56 miles south of Edinburgh.
Multiples Boots Opticians and Vision Express compete for local footfall with a branch of Specsavers that offers hearing and eye care services. Craig Bell, director of Specsavers Berwick, runs a practice that employs 17 staff and has three test rooms.
Due to Berwick’s location Bell explains customers travel into the practice from satellite towns up to 50 miles away. ‘Due to our proximity to the Scottish border practically 50% of our patients are from Scotland. This can present difficulties as patients sometimes do not understand that in England not everyone gets a funded eye examination. But overall our customers tend to be relaxed and live a slow pace of life. This gives us the luxury of spending a lot of time with patients.’
He adds: ‘We practice in a community where a good reputation is vital for regular business. Our location means we do find it hard to get locum cover if we need it.
‘Also, the nearest ophthalmology department being 60 miles away means we are often used as an extension to an accident and emergency department. We have been conducting diabetic screening for both sides of the border. Previously it was only two days a month that the screening service came up from Newcastle, now we can offer the service six days a week,’ says Bell.
Berwick does not have a local NHS scheme for red eye and other minor eye conditions but has schemes in place for diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and children’s eye care.
The only surviving independent practice in town is Lindsay Opticians. Its director and optometrist Jason Kinsley-Willis (pictured left offers a domiciliary service to patients in the area. Being so close to Scottish towns has increased pressure on nearby practices in England to provide NHS free sight tests.
Kinsley-Willis says: ‘We also cover patients from both sides of the border. Happily, most of our patients meet NHS entitlement no matter which side of the border they live – children, over 60s, patients with a relative that has been diagnosed with glaucoma. Where we have to we levy a private site test fee. We do charge supplementary fees for PVD (peripheral vascular disease) follow ups, foreign body removal and epilation. Our location in a border town means the practice has a unique role in accessible eye care across two countries with different laws.’
Who's in town
Total: 4
Independents: 1
Multiples: 3
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination range from free (at one multiple due to the proximity with Scotland) to £25. The average cost is £25.
Population (see left)
Berwick-Upon-Tweed population: 13,400
Northumberland population: 315,806 (2011 Census) (Pie chart figures are for Northumberland)
Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for the Northumberland CCG in glaucoma repeat readings, cataract referrals. The neighbouring CCG Newcastle & Gateshead has acquired a contract for children’s vision.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Berwick-upon-Tweed is £163,725 (Rightmove, 2016), compared with an average of £189,901 for England and Wales (Rightmove, 2016).
- NHS expenditure on vision problems per person in Northumberland is £106, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- There are 3,870 patients living in the county with cataract, 3,210 with glaucoma and 22,410 suffer from with diabetes, 6,410 patients have diabetic retinopathy.
Fun facts
Berwick-upon-Tweed has changed hands between England and Scotland 14 times.
Berwick is known by birdwatchers to be home to the second largest herd of mute swans, pictured, in Britain.
Andy Howey’s Birds of Prey Centre is TripAdvisor’s most highly rated ‘thing to do’ in the area.
Artist Laurence Stephen Lowry holidayed in Berwick and painted scenes of the cobbled streets and seaside.
The limestone of the shoreline contains fossils of crinoids, brachiopods, and other prehistoric life.