Limitations of the eye care profession’s reach in some of the UK’s most rural areas are reflected by the workloads of practitioners in cities such as Inverness.
Bob Young (pictured below), manager at Tesco Opticians, based in the residential Inshes area, says: ‘Inverness is a vibrant, ever-expanding city with a growing population. The profession here is different to other cities in Scotland due to the size of the catchment area. Being the capital of the Highlands and Islands, we have patients who combine eye tests with a shopping trip to Inverness from as far afield as John O’Groats 120 miles away.
‘The eye care system is a good model and treatments are excellent but it is let down by the referral waiting times. Raigmore Hospital serves such a huge area and struggles to attract permanent staff, the waiting times can be very long for routine procedures although, emergency care is always immediate and excellent.
‘Our main revenue streams are our core spectacles sales. We cater for all patients with single vision glasses starting from £15. Designer brands like Ray-Ban, Oakley and Michael Kors are very popular.’
The Duncan and Todd Group runs 30 eye care practices across Scotland. One of these is JM MacDonald which operates near Inverness city centre overlooking the river Ness. Serving mostly NHS patients means the practice can offer patients additional services such as optical coherence tomography at £25 and visual stress assessments at £20.
Branch manager Joanne Millar adds: ‘With a lot of our patients travelling from outside Inverness, co-ordinating appointments is a challenge. However, it is very rewarding to see a wide diversity of the patient base from Inverness and beyond. We’re very pleased with the eye care system, particularly with supplementary examinations which help us to monitor patients prior to referral if necessary. This has made our work far more interesting. We hope that we may adopt a referral system similar to that in the Aberdeen region in the future.’
Charles Hall, optometrist at independent Hall & Fraser Opticians based in the city centre premises, says: ‘Running an independent practice in Scotland has definitely been helped by the inclusive test fee, allowing the practice to budget better and also increases the likelihood of patients returning when due rather than waiting until they feel they need a test.
‘Competition is still very fierce and we can’t advertise to the same extent as the multi-nationals. Epayments makes claiming for NHS fees easier and more accurate. It makes practice planning more accurate as we are confident that we know what payments we will receive each month. The NHS fee allows us to be more competitive on pricing than ever before.’
Who's in town
Total: 9
Independents: 4
Multiples: 5
Average costs
Basic eye examination costs are covered by the government under NHS Scotland with extra charges for enhanced services. Private eye examinations are available to non-UK citizens who do not get the NHS Scotland concession.
Population - see pie chart
Inverness population: 79,415 (2013 Census)
Highland region: 232,950
Community eye care
NHS Highland uses the SCI referral gateway. NHS Highland and RNIB has established a vision support service in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, due to a lack of aftercare, particularly following diagnosis of macular degeneration.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Inverness is £176,683, compared with an average of £162,045 in Scotland (Registers of Scotland, 2016).
- NHS Highland expenditure on vision problems per person is £98, compared with the Scottish average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- 11,200 patients in the Highland area have early stage wet AMD, 1,670 with late stage wet AMD, 810 with late stage dry AMD (RNIB).
- There are 2,610 patients living in the city with cataract, 2,400 with glaucoma, 16,090 with diabetes, 4,720 with diabetic retinopathy (RNIB).
Fun facts
- The area is known for the 23-mile-long freshwater lake (pictured above that is said to contain the Loch Ness Monster.
- The murder of King Duncan by usurping Macbeth in Shakespeare’s play is thought to be set in the 11th century Inverness Castle.
- Inverness is the most northerly city in the UK.
- Guardians of the Galaxy and Doctor Who actress Karen Gillan was born and raised in the city.
- The first Cabinet meeting outside London was held by PM Lloyd George at the town hall in 1921.