Optical Express opens new flagship eye hospital

Optical Express has plans to continue diversifying its portfolio in the year ahead, OT heard, along with investing in its multidisciplinary teams.

OT spoke to Dr Stephen Hannan, group clinical services director at Optical Express, at the official opening of the group’s new Great Portland Street eye hospital.

More than £6 million was invested in the new facility, which will provide laser eye surgery, lens replacement surgery, cataract treatment, a range of wider ophthalmology services including dry eye treatment, glaucoma and macular degeneration monitoring and intervention.

Through the new eye hospital, Optical Express plans to expand services available for patients. Hannan said: “Ultimately, we want to combine all areas of ophthalmology in a facility like this. We’re excited about the opportunity this brings, not only to us, but to the patients.”

David Moulsdale, founder and CEO of Optical Express, said: “Our new flagship Great Portland Street eye hospital means that we can bring truly world-leading technology and expertise to the heart of London. I’m looking forward to seeing how our expert clinical team utilises the groundbreaking technology on offer to transform the lives of our patients.”

The company says that, since 2005, it has performed more than 60% of the ‘premium pay’ vision correction procedures in the UK and Ireland.

Holistic ophthalmic care

Describing the ambition to diversify the private provider’s portfolio of services, Hannan explained: “The patient who has a lot of trust in Optical Express for their cataract surgery – if they have age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, or an eye health condition that requires routine, regular follow-up – they want to come to us, and so we want to provide that service.”

“We are providing holistic, 360-degree ophthalmic care to a patient, regardless of their eye condition,” he said.

Hannan continued: “We want to continue that relationship with our cataract patients, our laser eye surgery patients, our lens replacement patients, our routine eye examination patients, to provide them life-time care of any eye condition that they have.”

Hannan pointed out that the number of treatments for glaucoma has grown in recent years.

He said: “Detecting glaucoma earlier allows us to offer the patient a broader range of treatments, including options that can reduce their reliance on eye drops, such as selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) laser, and that’s something we want to offer nationwide.”

Of the 130 Optical Express locations across the country, 40 provide a range of eye surgery services – something the company hopes to continue to grow across the network in the UK and Europe.

Multidisciplinary working

Optical Express, “where optometrists are working with ophthalmologists in a way that ultimately benefits the patient,” is a proponent of multidisciplinary working, Hannan said.

Across the group, optometrists have received training to support the delivery of certain procedures.

Hannan said: “We now have more than 40 optometrists trained to deliver YAG laser capsulotomy procedures, and we’re in double-figures for SLT procedures.”

Providing this training increases the scope of the optometrist’s role, enhancing their satisfaction, Hannan reflected, and also facilitates “more care of patients through our multidisciplinary working.”

The company has funded more than 100 optometrists through independent prescriber (IP) training in the past eight years, Hannan suggested, and has sponsored optometrists to undertake professional certificates in glaucoma and medical retina.

Optical Express is an “ideal provider” to facilitate placements for IP training, Hannan suggested, sharing: “Optometrists who work at Optical Express get that experience through what they are employed to do on a day-to-day basis.”

The group has recently launched a post-graduate level seven qualification in refractive and cataract surgery, which optometrists and ophthalmologists will be enrolled onto when they join the company.

The qualification will help professionals to “validate their skills in cataract and refractive surgery,” Hannan said.

Learning from patients

Optical Express is seeing an increase in patients aged over 50 seeking eye care privately, with the age of patients receiving lens surgery also seeing a slight increase.

Hannan reflected: “I think as expectations go up, patients in their 50s and 60s aren’t willing to wait as long as they used to.”

A desire for premium solutions that aren’t available on the NHS could also be a factor encouraging patients to elect for private care.

Hannan said: “The expectations of patients in each of the different generations is slightly different, which is why we’re seeing an increase in private in some of those generations.”

During the launch event, Hannan outlined how the group’s in-house medical record system enables Optical Express to capture a “vast amount of data.”

This is then used for continuous quality improvement processes, as well as shared through peer reviewed scientific publications and presentations to help the wider ophthalmic community in understanding how patients can be better served.

“What we learn from the patients today helps us serve, treat, and care for the patients tomorrow,” Hannan said.

NHS provision

In 2021, the independent service provider, ACES, which provides cataract surgery, glaucoma, and general ophthalmology services to the NHS, joined the group.

Leaders at Optical Express support a single point of access or centralised scheduling system, but outlined concerns regarding proposals from NHS England to reduce the tariffs for certain cataract procedures, as well as moves towards increased waiting times.

Hannan said: “Ultimately, the patient doesn’t benefit from that.”

The group believes that this will see more patients electing to use their own funds for private care, which Hannan says is not the right step for all patients.

He also highlighted the implications of untreated cataracts for the physical and mental wellbeing of patients.

“Unfortunately, due to financial constraints, the volume of NHS cataract surgery is likely to reduce and the volume of private-paying cataract surgery is likely to increase as a result. Whilst we already deliver lower rates of cataract surgery as a country, per head of population, than many European counterparts, financial constraints have hte potential to lower numbers further,” he cautioned.

During the launch event of the new flagship facility, Professor Steve Schallhorn, chairman of Optical Express’ International Medical Advisory Board, described a “crisis” in the practice of medicine.

He said: “We have increasing demand on health care. We have an ageing population. We have reduced reimbursements from governments.”

In order to solve this, Schallhorn suggested, providers need to work efficiently, productively, and provide the best care affordably.

Moulsdale said: “We stand ready to take on this work through our ACES and Optical Express ophthalmology business.”

Pictured: David Moulsdale, Founder and CEO of Optical Express, and Nicholas Ridley, son of Sir Harold Ridley, inventor of the first IOL.