General Chat

That's horrific, but shows exactly what OE are all about. It beggars belief that they messed your eyes up so badly yet make out that they are doing you a favour, what drugs are these cowboys on?

The plain fact that you had all those consults and after care plus treatments were not done out of care for you, oh god no, OE obviously know they messed up big time with your eyes and were trying all the tricks to ride out your legal timeframe for litigation, that is what they are trying to avoid - litigation.

I would not be after a refund of the cost of the procedure, i'd be after serious compensation, what you have suffered and gone through you should go down this route, I had 4 long years of litigation with them, all the lies etc and was only at the last minute that they played ball, eventually I settled 10 months ago.

You really should be looking at litigation against the whole bunch of cowboys.

My first laser surgery treatment was carried out on 21st December 2010 by Dr Shahriar Nabili at the Siverburn clinic. This was the start of an endless nightmare. My vision was bad immediately after surgery. When I went back the next day they said “Oh my god!" and told me I had dryness right across my central vision line and gave me a bag full of assorted drops that I had to take AT LEAST every 15 minutes!

After many more visits I was advised to have lens replacement (RLE) surgery as they told me it was the only option because further laser surgery was not possible. This was done at Glasgow Ace Giffnock clinic by Dr David Teenan on 19th and 26th August 2013 after which I continued to suffer chronic dry eyes and vision problems.

On the 11th May 2015 David Teenan performed YAG on my left eye (and I only found out today that having YAG means it is not possible to have any further treatment!).

Still with problems on the 31st May 2016 I saw Derrick Hannan [Tweedledum's brother] who told me David Teenan was going to put a piggy back lens in my R eye. I corrected him, because it was my left eye that had YAG laser, so he then checked my eyes but said they were much too dry for any treatment that day.

When I left the clinic I wanted to cry because it was just another let down and still no resolution to my problems.

Stephen Hannan sent me a NINE page letter on 16th August 2016 wrongly claiming that I met with David Teenan on 31st May when he gave me a full clinical examination. I definitely did not see David Teenan that day.



His lengthy letter mostly tells me how much OE have done for me and that they’ve gone beyond their obligations,



I went to another appointment on 6th of July 2016 when I met with Dr Teenan and Colin Berry. Dr Teenan asked me what I wanted to do regarding further procedures and I asked for his advice. I was told any further treatment could enhance the dryness. I said I did not want to take this chance. I asked what my options were now and was told they will keep trying to treat the dryness. I told them they have been trying that for almost six years without success and at this point I asked if I could get my money back. They told me I had to write to clinical services to request a refund. Up until this time I was always lead to believe they were going to fix my eyes.

Throughout my journey there have been so many ups and downs; I had to give up full time employment as an outreach worker because of the driving involved. I now work in a unit part time at a lower hourly rate. I have often to depend on others to take me there or pick me up out with the times of public transport on the days when my eyes are bad.

Optical Express are responsible for irreparably damaging my eyes and life and have failed to provide any satisfactory treatment to date! Since asking for a refund OE have said they are happy to support ongoing clinical care but insult me by saying that I now need to pay for the service, even though my aftercare was supposed to be free for life!



I am disgusted that the letter from Stephen Hannan suggests that Optical Express have done me a favour by providing me with free treatment for 6 years and I should be grateful to them for allowing me to attend SIXTY TWO consultations!



Each visit to Glasqow was a 70 mile round trip and not once did OE pay my travel expenses.

I didn’t ask for any of this to happen and am shocked that Optical Express are legally allowed to do this to people and get away with it.
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admin: I've read hundreds of similar letters from Tweedledum to OE damaged patients, telling them that OE did nothing wrong, detailing each procedure and quoting unsubstantiated statistics to support his arguments, lying that the patient was verbally and fully informed of all the possible risks, that MGD is not a result of laser eye surgery, etc… but his letter to Anne is exceptionally outrageous - all eight pages of it!

I have Anne's permission to publish this in its entirety, and will do so in due course. However, tomorrow is the RCOphth meeting, to discuss suggestions for collection of outcome data and redress for damaged patients, and I will be taking Stephen Hannan’s letter with me as evidence to support my argument that it is ONLY government regulation that will stop OE continuing to wreck people’s eyes and lives!

The only workable system for redress from OE et al is the legal one

Following Anneka Rice's interview with the Daily Mail in April 2016, when she admitted that laser 'blended vision' eye surgery had left her with damaged eyesight, I spoke with her manager, Jackie Gill, who confirmed that (as I thought) it was ‘Professor’ Dan Reinstein at London Vision clinic who had operated on Anneka’s eyes.

I told Jackie about My Beautiful Eyes campaign, explained that the industry was unregulated, and asked for Anneka's support, stressing how valuable this would be to the campaign.

Jackie told me that she would discuss all of this with Anneka, but that for the moment Anneka's priority was to get try and get her eyes fixed.

Fair enough, just like so many thousands of us dream of...

But six months later, just like Mel B (Spice Girls), Anneka's gone quiet about her damaged eyes, when she could have done so much to help publicise the very real risks of this unregulated industry!


I wonder what the Reinstein Cowboy promised Anneka to keep her quiet - so named by his peers, not me!

Tweet to Anneka here twitter.com/AnnekaRice - she's blocked me :kiss:

The UK refractive eye surgery industry is like a polluted goldfish bowl, where fish swim together in the same murky water!

For instance, Mr Glenn Carp works at London Vision Clinic, owned by 'Professor' Dan Reinstein - his is not a UK bestowed title and derided by his peers, esp those who are legitimate professors.
www.londonvisionclinic.com

Dan can’t decide whether he wants to be a celebrity or a surgeon, so he operates on celebrities and profits from their reflected publicity and paid endorsements, e.g. Dr Hilary Jones, who would (in my opinion) endorse rabbit faeces as a cure for acne if paid enough!

In 2015 Anneka Rice became one of Dan’s ‘celebrity’ patients, but I can assure you that she will not be endorsing Dan or his clinic - even if she were paid!

In fact, after 'laser blended vision' surgery at the London Vision Clinic, Anneka tweeted that she was left with, "much much worse eyesight" than before surgery (story posted here on 27 April).

Daily Mail...



Twitter...



Back to Glenn Carp…

Included in his CV, Glenn's career history lists Optimax Laser Eye Clinic in Peterborough, naming Russell Ambrose as his supervisor in 2007.

For anyone new to OERML, Russell Ambrose owns Optimax & Ultralase and is 100% businessman without any medical qualifications (that he has ever disclosed to me).

I have taken advice on this matter and been assured that it is totally inappropriate for a surgeon to be supervised by a businessman and also contrary to the GMC Good medical practice which states that doctors must have appropriate supervision - from a doctor!

With this info from Mr Carp, I believe that the GMC and CQC should investigate who is currently responsible for supervising both Optimax and Ultralase surgeons

I should have explained why OE altered their T&Cs in June



www.gmc-uk.org/static/documents/content/...rventions_080416.pdf


www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/29160.asp


www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/28709.asp

Google ‘cosmetic surgery’ to understand that refractive eye surgery is indisputably NOT a cosmetic procedure...

e.g. ‘Surgery performed to enhance the appearance of a body part, especially on the face. Also called aesthetic surgery…. reconstruction of cutaneous or underlying tissues, performed to improve and correct a structural defect or to remove a scar, birthmark, or normal evidence of aging. Kinds of cosmetic surgery include blepharoplasty, rhinoplasty, rhytidoplasty. Also called aesthetic surgery.'
medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cosmetic+surgery

And while the GMC's 1 June rule may (questionably) help some of those considering refractive eye surgery, it is entirely counterproductive to include invasive surgical procedures under the cosmetic surgery umbrella!

Elective, yes - cosmetic, NO!!

OE's very confusing and contradictory new T&Cs!

• Page 1 says if you don't sign the T&Cs they won't accept you for surgery



• Page 4 states that the T&Cs apply even if you haven't signed them - let alone seen them!
• Page 4 asks for acknowledgement 'that all of [my] questions have been answered’ before signing



(The Crystal Mark from the Plain English Campaign is surely a joke!)

This begs the question, why are they taking deposits from people before they see the surgeon - the ONLY person in a position to answer all your questions (if you’re lucky)?

Read posts from John A and Suraiya M in the Deposit Refund topic, detailing their recent experiences with the T&Cs.

NB: John A has published all four pages of the T&Cs in his post

Today's front page headline in the Daily Mail is - "END OF THE EYE SURGERY LOTTERY".

This regarding cataract sufferers being denied surgery in a postcode lottery, & the Mail went all out with it's campaign to end this scandal which has now resulted in health secretary Jeremy Hunt doing something about it.

Well, both the Mail and Jeremy Hunt have been fully aware for a long time of the scandal of thousands of patients eyes and lives being utterly ruined by the UK refractive surgery industry, so they should be actually doing something about this too!
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-37992...taract-patients.html

In this day and age for such a company like Optical Express to have so much negativity trending online, they should know its bad for business, unless they DO NOT CARE!!!!

I paid over £500 for a new paid of glasses, they promised to send them to me. Two weeks later I am still waiting. Called 08455 558277, whoever picks it up eventually claims they call the branch and that the number is busy. The person then promises to call me later but never does. It now sounds like a script because the next time and the next time I call, I get the same message.

The sad thing is that I could have stormed the branch and demanded my glasses but I'm out of the country till 18 October.

Oh, they tried to sell me the laser treatment but I refused. Now that I've seen all these online complaints, I'm glad I did.

Optical Express, I DO NOT WANT LASER SURGERY - PLEASE SEND ME MY GLASSES!!!

Hi! My wife Nicky was butchered by Manek Patel at the Optical Express clinic in Shaftesbury Avenue on 2 May 2012. I'm in the process of collecting evidence and need your help!

On 27 April 2012 Nicky was seen by Hein Muller in Sutton Surrey, but Optical Express claim Dr Manek Patel was there too advising her. This is a lie!

I need to know where Patel was on 27 April 2012 - was he treating you or someone you know?

Many thanks, Mark Clerkin

PS: Please send any info to Sasha@opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk

Having viewed the videos of ophthalmic surgeons holding their victims up to ridicule, (and not the first videos of this type to appear on the Internet), I am not at all lost for words. In my opinion they are psychopaths, and not fit to practice.
Any ethical ophthalmologists left out there, who actually care about patient welfare and the terrible reputation that their chosen profession now has, should be fighting this corruption until it is well and truly wiped out.