Elvis and Priscilla had just married, ‘All You Need Is Love’ had reached number one in the singles chart and supersonic airliner Concorde was unveiled. The year is 1967 and Milton Keynes had just been designated a ‘new town’ by the British government. Now celebrating its 50th birthday, Milton Keynes has an economy worth £9.6 billion and a population much younger than the average British town, so how does this affect how local optical practices are run?
‘As a store with a younger age profile, we do find our patients are much more tech savvy,’ says Specsavers store director Steve Moore (pictured below). ‘There’s a diverse range of people who have different demands and time pressures than patients in other stores. We’re located in a shopping centre so we draw in people from a wide age range. Milton Keynes doesn’t have a high street so one of the advantages of being in the shopping centre is we get a lot of footfall.’
With the 50th anniversary and Specsavers store undergoing a refurbishment (Optician 17.02.17), Moore and his colleagues have lots to celebrate in 2017. He says: ‘We often sponsor events or do on the day screening to raise awareness. Despite being a large town, the community comes together a lot.’
Located just outside the shopping centre is Hammond and Dummer Opticians, which attracts a different customer base than the multiples. Managing director Claire Ranger says: ‘In Milton Keynes we have all the big names so we differentiate ourselves by becoming more of a high end boutique optician to target the people who have more disposable income. We stock Cartier, Lindberg, Bespoke Tom Davies and Gotti.’
Although certain brands the practice stocks are not particularly well known outside of optics, Ranger says she never has a problem selling them. ‘You get the odd person asking for brands like Chanel and Tiffany which we don’t stock, but we just say we’ve got others which are a lot nicer and better quality. We say “what style do you want” rather than what brand.’
Raj Shah chairs the Milton Keynes sub-committee, which is part of Buckinghamshire LOC. He says: ‘The population of Milton Keynes is growing, which does pose a challenge to eye care. It’s growing so quickly and its questionable whether secondary care can cope. The CCG just appointed a new commissioning head, so we will hopefully see a Mecs and glaucoma scheme get underway soon.’
Who’s in town?
Total: 8
Independents: 4
Multiples: 4
Average cost
Prices for an eye examination range from £20 to £38. The average cost is £28.
Population - see chart
Total population: 248, 800 (2011)
Community Eye Care
According to the Locsu Atlas Map of Optical Variation, Buckinghamshire Local Optical Committee has secured a contract for NHS Milton Keynes CCG in cataract referral.
Health and affluence
- The average house price in Milton Keynes is £269,587 (Rightmove, 2016) compared with an average of £216,750 for England and Wales (Land Registry, 2016).
- NHS expenditure on vision problems in Milton Keynes per person is £69, compared with the UK average of £89 (RNIB Sight Loss Data Tool 2015).
- 1,160 patients live in Milton Keynes with early stage wet AMD and 560 with dry AMD (RNIB).
- There are about 1,800 people living in Milton Keynes who have cataracts, 2, 390 people with glaucoma and 15,220 with diabetes. Some 5,120 patients have diabetic retinopathy according to RNIB figures.
Fun facts
Milton Keynes was the last and largest of the post-war ‘new towns’.
Milton Keynes’ ice rink, Planet Ice, was used for practice by Torville and Dean and has been used for ITV’s Dancing on Ice.
The town is home to the Open University’s headquarters, which was the world’s first degree-awarding distance learning institution.
The town is bidding to become European Capital of Culture in 2023.