People living in rural settlements tend to rely on the services offered in the nearest town. A good example of a deceptively large catchment area is the King’s Lynn Hardwick retail zone on the edge of town.
In this retail zone Lorna Parker (pictured below) manages the Tesco Opticians. She says: ‘We cater for the affluent surrounding villages as well as King’s Lynn residents. It is important to meet their visual requirements regardless of what budget they need to stay within. There are no enhanced services contracts locally at this present time. It has encouraged us to manage eye conditions in-house. For example, our ocular hypertension and early cataract detection has helped our local hospital reduce waiting times. The patient base provides an interesting challenge for my optom who works closely with the elderly patients to help them achieve an adequate level of vision to help them carry on driving.’
This month the local Specsavers is relocating from its town centre premises to work within a Sainsbury’s opposite Tesco: ‘This will enable the rural population to access us more easily,’ says Mark Willis, dispensing director.
He adds: ‘We have seen a large increase in over-60s who visited us in the past six months. The customers are more laid back than other locations I’ve worked in. As patients are in less of a rush we can build relationships with them. Compared to the rest of the country we sell less designer brands.
‘Our most popular frames are plastic, square or rectangular and between £69 and £99 because our client base is older. We also provide NHS hearing services across a lot of Norfolk. Around 75% of our customers have an NHS sight test.’
Modernisation of services has been difficult, even with the resources of the multiple. Willis says: ‘We don’t have any enhanced services yet as the local CCG are relatively inactive in this area compared to other local CCGs. We have had conversations around providing some enhanced services and have planned a dedicated EOS room in the new practice. Trying to attract qualified professionals is also difficult.’
A spokesman for NHS West Norfolk CCG adds: ‘We intend to work with local optometrists, providers of ophthalmology services and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, to look at the options available. We are planning to have these discussions in the new year.’
Who's in town
Total: 5
Independents: 2
Multiples: 3
Average costs
Prices for an eye examination range from free to £330. The average cost is £25.
Population - (see pie chart, right)
King’s Lynn and West Norfolk population: 148,758 (2011 Census)
Community eye care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, Norfolk & Waveney Local Optical Committee has secured contracts for NHS West Norfolk CCG in glaucoma repeat readings, cataract referral and OHT monitoring.
Health and affluence
- Average house price in King’s Lynn is £146,253 (Rightmove, 2016), compared with an average of £189,901 for England and Wales (Land Registry, 2016).
- NHS expenditure on vision problems per person in
- King’s Lynn is £116, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- There are 8,220 patients living in King’s Lynn and West Norfolk with drusen-related early stage AMD, 1,330 with wet AMD and 640 with dry AMD (RNIB).
- There are 2,060 patients living in the town with cataract, 1,510 with glaucoma, 10,710 suffer from with diabetes and 3,040 patients have diabetic retinopathy (RNIB).
Fun facts
-Local 20th century painter Walter Dexter is known for his depictions of Lynn’s pastoral landscapes and townscapes, pictured.
-Robinson Crusoe author Daniel Defoe said King’s Lynn was: ‘Beautiful, well built and well situated.’
-King’s Lynn has a reputation as a festival town with arts events in the market square.
-A recreation of the Dunkirk evacuation was filmed at Walpole St Andrew near King’s Lynn for the 2007 film Atonement.
-According to the Lynn News, nearly half of all lawnmowers stolen in Norfolk go missing from King’s Lynn.