Look local: Clinics and commerce in Coleraine

Louise McKeag is the director of Louise McKeag Opticians, located near Coleraine's town centre – an area known as ‘the Diamond’ and which is home to a cluster of optometric practices. She says: ‘We have a super quality of life with good infrastructure and sense of community. There is however a wide disparity in social terms in Coleraine. Some very wealthy people choose to retire here and enjoy the golf on the coast but unfortunately there is also great unemployment and social deprivation.

‘In such a small community we need to be equipped to help everyone. Working in Coleraine compared to other parts can bring extra responsibility as we are geographically far from any emergency eye services. The advantage of the proximity to the university would be the low vision clinic. The main challenge is the competition. There are a lot of opticians in the area which creates a lot of commercial pressures,’ says McKeag.