“It’s important that we are communicating”

6am

I wake up in the morning around six o’clock. I have my black coffee and go through my emails to see if there’s anything that I need to do for the day in terms of the business, including any new memos from head office, to make sure I’m aligned with everything that’s going on.

6.15am

I use that first 15 minutes to collate my thoughts, and then I go out for a run. It’s good for my mental health, distracts me from everything else, and gets me ready for the day. I run almost every day – five days a week, minimum.

7am

I come back from my run, get ready, and help my wife with the kids. I’ve got a three-and-a-half-year-old, who is in pre-school. My wife has just come off maternity leave and is back at work, so my son is in nursery. We drive to nursery and school, and drop them off. With kids, life has become extremely busy.

8.30am

On the way to the practice, I get myself another coffee – I’m a regular at Caffè Nero. I like contributing to the High Street economy.

I get into practice for around half past eight, and do bit of light tidying. I’ll sweep up, if we had a busy clinic and it wasn’t done the night before. We don’t have cleaners; we do it ourselves. I make sure everything is tidy, and turn all the screens and equipment on for the optometrists. I’ll get everything ready for my staff to arrive at 10 to nine, before we have our daily huddle.

9.15am

I do less testing now, because I’ve got two pre-regs. I have a morning brief with both my pre-regs after the meeting that we have with all the staff, about the patients who are coming in, what to look out for, and if there’s anything going on with them, for example pathology.

I advise them on their clinics. If the patient has been to us before, we look at the record to see if there’s anything interesting that they should look out for, and they make notes. It makes the day go more smoothly. I probably test once or twice a week now, as I’m predominantly supervising the pre-regs.

9.30am

By the time the first patient arrives, because I’ve done my morning run, I’ve had my porridge, and I've sorted the kids, I'm fully focused. My priority then is to fully engage with patient care and leadership, for the rest of the day.

We want to make sure everyone’s mental health is being looked after

12.30pm

I don't really get lunch these days. If I do, it’s a quick 20 minutes. My lunches are spent in my office. I’ll have a quick sandwich, and catch up with my regional manager if I need to.

I’ll also have a 10-minute brief with my store manager, Nathan, a dispensing optician, who has been pivotal to the practice. We discuss what has happened in the morning, any issues, and anything to be aware of for the afternoon.

We have quite a large team, with a lot of optical assistants, so it’s important that we are communicating, and knowing what’s going on across the shopfloor – not just from a patient perspective, but from a staff wellbeing point of view as well. We want to make sure everyone’s mental health is being looked after.

When you're busy, people don’t really speak up. But it helps if you have a good system in place. We have an open-door policy with our team. We always invite them in with any questions, any problems, or anything that’s on their mind. We want them to come in and talk to us. We run the business like that on a day-to-day basis.

1.30pm

In the afternoon, I check my pre-regs' notes. I go through the records and make sure that they’ve done their bit – that they’re working accurately and contemporaneously, and that all their records are legible.

I also check in again with Nathan and with our assistant store manager, Elena, to make sure that all our morning orders have gone through, and any queries or emails that needed to be answered have been dealt with.

5.30pm

The practice closes at half past five, and afterwards I’ll wrap up with the pre-regs. We have a five-minute debrief on how the day went, and if any referrals need doing, I help them iron those out.

I take pride in the practice looking clean, so I always try to hoover at the end of the day. I will not leave the practice until the work is complete. I’m not the type of guy who leaves things for tomorrow. If it needs doing today, it will get done today.

7pm

Evenings are family time. My wife makes a lovely courgette lasagne, and it hits the spot every single time. Being on the healthier side always works for me.

8pm

In the evenings, I do like to read. These days, I’ve been reading a lot more on changes in ophthalmology, including recent developments with stem cells treatments. I’m a bit of a nerd. I like to read away from the usual topics. I feel knowledge is power, and if you know more about your profession, you can then educate your patients better as well.

I read American journals and things written in Europe. I look at a broad range of areas and countries. Everyone has a different way of working, but the root of it is the same, so it’s nice to bring it all together.