Vision Care Mobile Vision Service hosts MP visit

Gloucester MP, Alex McIntyre, committed to raising the charity’s policy requests with the newly appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

4 min read

Vision Care

Kimberley Young

30 July 2026

Vision Care has called on the Government to remove barriers preventing people affected by homelessness from accessing NHS eye care.

The charity hosted Gloucester MP, Alex McIntyre, to its Mobile Vision Service on 20 July.

The pop-up clinic was held at a community venue in Gloucester city centre supporting asylum seekers and refugees.

Vision Care team members including chief executive, Hannah Telfer, and services development manager, Nikhil Sonpal, showed the MP how bringing eye care into trusted community settings can help overcome barriers preventing many people from accessing traditional optical services.

These barriers can include demonstrating eligibility for NHS support, anxiety regarding unfamiliar clinical environments, challenges attending appointments, and concerns around cost.

The clinic was the second of nine Mobile Vision Service sessions being financially supported by NHS Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) across the county.

The first took place in Cheltenham and supported 12 patients, and the second provided eye care to 14 people.

The programme in Gloucestershire forms part of Vision Care’s wider Mobile Vision Service which has provided eye care to 231 people since March 2026, dispensing 229 pairs of glasses.

Telfer emphasised: “These figures show that the need is real and that the solution works.”

Mobile clinics align with NHS care in community shift

Sharing highlights from the visit, the charity noted that McIntyre agreed that the model closely reflects the ambitions of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan – in particular, the aim to move care closer to communities.

McIntyre also committed to raising Vision Care’s three policy requests with the newly appointed Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Vision Care is calling for three changes to NHS eye care policy: explicitly including homelessness within eligibility for free NHS sight tests, removing the pre-visit notification requirement for homelessness settings, and extending NHS repair and replacement support.

Telfer commented: “It was encouraging to hear Alex recognise how closely this work aligns with the NHS 10 Year Health Plan. Taking care into trusted community environments is exactly what moving services closer to people should look like in practice.”

Taking care into trusted community environments is exactly what moving services closer to people should look like in practice

Hannah Telfer, chief executive, Vision Care

“We are also grateful that he has committed to raising our three requests directly with the new health secretary. This is an important opportunity to address these barriers early in her appointment and ensure people experiencing homelessness are not overlooked,” she added.

Nikhil Sonpal, services development manager at Vision Care, welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate to the MP “the impact that can be achieved when healthcare commissioners, local charities and community organisations work together with a shared purpose.”

ICB support and the national gap

Vision Care has praised the Gloucestershire ICB for recognising the existing health inequalities and investing in a solution, with Telfer commenting: “It has supported our work in the county almost from the beginning, and its decision to fund nine clinics across Gloucestershire shows what can be achieved when local NHS leaders understand the barriers and are prepared to act.”

However, Vision Care has emphasised that the gap in access to healthcare needs to be addressed nationally.

Telfer said: “People experiencing homelessness should not have better or worse access to essential eye care depending on where they happen to be or whether their local ICB can find additional funding.”

“Gloucestershire is demonstrating that this model works. The Government and NHS England now need to remove the barriers that make this additional intervention necessary,” she added.

Vision Care plans to withdraw from its existing static provision in Gloucester and hopes to continue serving the city and wider county through the mobile model.

Sonpal commented: “We’re already seeing growing interest from other integrated care boards that want to explore similar models, which is incredibly encouraging. Our long-term ambition is to ensure that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, can access the eye care they need.”

“We also hope that the evidence and partnerships we’re building will help shape future national policy, making community-based eye care for people affected by homelessness a recognised and sustainable part of the healthcare system,” he said.

Our long-term ambition is to ensure that everyone, regardless of their circumstances, can access the eye care they need

Nikhil Sonpal, services development manager at Vision Care

Achievable change

Telfer emphasised that the charity’s three asks are “focused and achievable changes” that would remove barriers to care.

She said: “Our Mobile Vision Service shows what can be achieved when we take care to people, rather than waiting for people facing significant barriers to find their way into traditional services.”

“But local areas should not have to build and fund separate solutions to compensate for gaps in national policy,” Telfer continued.

She added: “The Government has committed to moving more NHS care into communities. It must now ensure that the rules governing NHS eye care enable that ambition rather than stand in its way.”

Telfer concluded: “Glasses will not end homelessness, but being unable to see can make almost every part of escaping homelessness more difficult. If we are serious about helping people rebuild their lives, we must ensure they can access the basic healthcare many of us take for granted.”