Moneo: Time is right to strike a fair deal

Hardly a day goes by now when I do not get a phone call from a patient requesting to see me to discuss a problem that does not require a sight test in the traditional sense. Traditionally many of these problems would have been dealt with in the local eye clinic or A&E or by the patient’s GP. However, it would seem that, in line with the trend with other ‘emergencies’, people are looking to alternative ways to satisfy their concerns.

Often this is because the wait at my practice is significantly less than at the eye clinic or A&E. Often it is because the eye clinic will not see them without a formal referral from an optometrist or GP and hence, because they cannot get an appointment with their GP for a long time, they phone us expecting to be seen the same day. Of course we always attempt to fit the patient in the same day but as we are invariably booked up for at least a week ahead this normally means the patient being slotted in between others who are already scheduled.