General Chat

A patient (customer) is 'switched' when they go into an Optical Express store to buy glasses, and the salesperson and/or optometrist manages to pressure them into buying eye surgery instead!



This screenshot dates back to 2014, but courtesy of an OE employee with a conscience (few & far between nowadays), I have a veritable galaxy of 2018 internal documents, proving that staff incentives and bonuses are integral to the survival of this corrupt comany!

Watch this space

Hi
I booked my lens replacement at the Trafford centre branch about 4/5 years ago and im pretty sure when I booked the procedure I was promised a lifetime backup should I need further treatments was anybody else given this assurance?
TIA
________________________
admin: Oh yes...
www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...etime-guarantee.html

Cont'd...

LVC = Laser Vision Correction
IOL = Intraocular Lens (RLE/NLR/Lens exchange)

Lee Mackinnon is Optical Express' Head of Performance, and after reading a number of his emails to store staff, I believe he'd be more appropriately employed as a sports team coach, screaming at players from the sidelines!
www.opticalexpressjobs.co.uk/…/meet-head-of-performa…

The heavily encouraged and incentivised sales pressure put on customers is ill placed, and not acceptable for a provider of ANY surgical procedure!



The 'Surgery Slot Finder' enables staff to book in bamboozled customers before they've had time to think, therefore parting with a sizeable deposit, if not the entire surgery cost, on the day of their 'free consultation'.

Never mind that they haven't seen the surgeon, or walked in for a 'free consultation' - or worse, simply to buy a pair of glasses!



More to follow

Super Saturday', a contest between all OpticalExpress store managers, optoms, and refractive technicians (aka salespersons), to sell as many procedures as possible!

And these were the lucky 'Superstar' winners on 27 January 2018...



Not so lucky the pawns in their game

My first response to this advertising was, 'ROTFLMAO'



But I don't know if I can even laugh, because what else would you expect a surgeon operating on your eyes to be - a vet?

And how does a patient 'build a relationship with', and 'trust their surgeon', over the course of what is less than a 10 minute meeting - or nowadays rmore likely a phone consultation?!

Scary is an understatement!

www.opticalexpress.co.uk/about/surgeons

How much lower can Optical Express sink - playing Battleship with patients' eyes




David Shirra, Performance Director at Optical Express since August 2016, 'Responsible for business performance and group operations, reporting to the Chief Executive & Chairman.’
www.linkedin.com/in/david-shirra-a5b9b05

'From: David Shirra
Sent: 02 February 2018 09:03
Subject: Welcome to Refractive Battleships!

Good morning team,

Welcome to today’s refractive incentive- Thinkers & Lead Time Battleships!

Let us buy your coffee & lunch for the week, or even a Friday treat in today’s incentive. For every thinker OR every booking with a lead time of 14 days or less, a grid reference is yours!

Remember, by INSPIRING your patients with our unparalleled technology, exceptional patient outcomes and the current thinker incentive offers, every clinic should be delivering a strong return thinker performance today. If you are unsure of the current FIXED PRICE OFFERS, speak with your regional manager for clarity. Remember, the surgery support team are on hand to find you a surgeon discussion r treatment slot WHEREVER required.

The secret is to plan your day effectively to utilise diary gaps for trying, and sensitively retrying patients until you make connection!

Please see the slides below with details of how you can WIN in today’s incentive. To enter please complete the following template and reply to all in this email.

CID-
CLINIC-
TREATMENT-
TREATMENT COST-
DISCOUNT?-
TREATMENT DATE-
DEPOSIT-
SRO NAME & GRID REFERENCE-
PA NAME & GRID REFERENCE -

Are you ready to play?

David'

So I found this forum after finding out I don't have Lifetime Guarantee on my eyes!

Surgery Dec 2009 - I've not found the paperwork yet. I'm guessing I signed the paperwork a month or two before. Having moved countries twice since then, I'm going to have to have a real hunt to find the contract.

I'm currently having the following issues (any recommendations or advice appreciated!):
- intermittent blurry vision - one hour it's perfect, the next it is awful
- terrible night vision
- dry eyes


If you're interested here is a link to their old website from 2009: web.archive.org/web/20090908204010/http:...ticalexpress.com:80/

Hi Sasha, Just wanted to say a huge thank you!

I'd wanted laser treatment for a while, had a consultation on 4th Dec with OE.
They quoted me £5700, which was too much. They called almost daily since but I ignored the calls until 28th Dec when they offered 24 months interest free and reduced price of £3995.
I was about to pay my £400 deposit when I found your website, after spending the several hours researching your work - i'm so grateful to you! I had no idea!!

My mum had also planned to have lens replacement treatment with Optical Express within the next few weeks, at a cost of £6,600. Thankfully she has now also decided to cancel due to your work. Although she had paid a deposit, she's requested a refund - I'll keep you updated with how this goes.

Thank you so much for all you do, my mum and I may well owe our healthy eyes to you. I will continue to follow your work and help in anyway I can. xx

Link to Professor Leys' CHPI report published here on 7 December...
chpi.org.uk/papers/reports/no-safety-wit...ian-paterson-scandal

From the Daily Mail, 22 January 2018...

'Professor Leys’ report urges that the NHS mopping up after the private sector must come to an end, for there to be any hope of improving private care...

NHS emergency departments are already overstretched and private hospitals need to have robust risk management plans to ensure that safeguards are in place with adequate aftercare...

Where a patient is admitted to the NHS due to the fault of private healthcare, the private sector should be expected to pay for the costs incurred by NHS emergency departments for that patient’s treatment. Otherwise patients will continue to be perilously dumped back into the NHS — and we the taxpayers will have to pay the costs.’
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-52996...gery-gone-wrong.html

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and I have been making this same point for years, one the government continue to turn their blind eyes to [sic].

I was introduced to Colin Leys in early December, when I told him about the shockingly high number of damaged eye surgery patients left dependent on the NHS, statistics that were not included in his report.

Not least because, as Moorfields (Private & NHS) surgeon Bruce Allan so obligingly admitted to me via email in November 2016,
'We do not have accurate contemporary figures for the numbers of refractive surgery procedures performed in the UK', and therefore unarguably no record of the numbers damaged!

However, I am confident that when this scandal is finally exposed - and it will be - the numbers of damaged patients annually receiving NHS treatment, no matter to what extent, will prove to double the numbers reported by Professor Leys.

And as long as this industry remains unregulated, the numbers will increase year on year!

Colin Leys and I also discussed the abuse of the NHS by its employed consultants. I told him that I have evidence of private refractive clinics located on NHS premises using NHS paid employees to treat private patients during NHS clinic time, while surgeons and staff at Moorfields in London contact their private practice patients from NHS email addresses!

Last year I asked Moorfields' Medical Director Declan Flanagan about a related incident, and he replied,



In my opinion therefore, privately employed 'Mr Blank' is not entitled to use @Moorfields.nhs.uk email address, and nor should the surgeons when working out of their private practice.

I also told Colin Leys about Moorfields surgeons like Julian Stevens, who damage patients at their private practices in the Arthur Steele Unit, and then arrange for the patients to be referred to their Moorfields NHS clinics across the road.

Summer 2017, I accompanied a damaged patient in litigation to his medicolegal appointment with an ‘expert’ ophthalmologist (paid in excess of £2,000 by Optical Express) who conducted a half hour consultation with the patient in the midst of his NHS clinic.

When I asked, the optom who tested the patient’s eyes before he saw the expert, and spent more than half an hour with him, confirmed that she was employed and paid by the NHS!

Meanwhile, many OERML followers may remember reading about the Musgrove Park Hospital NHS cataract surgery scandal, also mentioned in the Mail article...

'The operations were done in 2014 by Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, which had been appointed by the trust to help clear a backlog of 400 patients. Vanguard then sub-contracted part of the contract to another company, The Practice, which then sub-contracted to Kestrel Ophthalmics.

Half of those operated on, 31 patients, suffered problems — a complication rate ten times the normal figure; NHS staff raised the alarm and the operations at the hospital were terminated after only four days.

In 2016 Health Minister Ben Gummer* told Parliament that so far, ten compensation claims for these patients have been received. Two have been settled, at a total cost of nearly £90,000 — one of those was Michael Newcombe, 84, who was left blind in one eye after the surgery.

The money has come from the NHS, with no indication that it will be able to recoup the damages from the private company.'

* Just like his predecessors and successor, Ben Gummer did his utmost to avoid meeting with me during his term as health minister, and in 2015 responded to questions in parliament, from MPs Richard Harrington and John McDonnell, with lies and regurgitated bullsh*t!



I repeat, if you haven't yet contacted your local MP, PLEASE PLEASE do so