After reading this article at 11pm last night I was left speechless, not even angry, but I didn’t immediately post the link as I was too shocked to comment!
www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-67123...ve-worse-vision.html
So here’s the truth
On 7 February - whilst at the MPTS hearing in Manchester - journalist Thea Jourdan contacted me, asking for information and case studies for her intended article about lens exchange, which she told me would be a ‘
balanced piece’.
I explained that when Optical Express settled their £21.5 million legal claim against her employers, Associated Newspapers Ltd, there was allegedly an agreement with ANL that they wouldn’t publish anything about me in the future. (Read 4 Feb post for more details)
I therefore told Thea that I’d be very happy to give her everything she needed, but in return, at the very least, I expected a mention of My Beautiful Eyes Foundation, patient advocacy service and campaign for government regulation. No need to mention OERML...
She readily agreed, expressing surprise that there might be any issue with this, and we spoke a number of times, at length, and I provided plenty of detailed info and documentation - including Bruce Allan’s email...
Today's article claims, "
An estimated 100,000 Britons have now had a RLE procedure in an effort to get rid of their spectacles. And, undoubtedly, the vast majority – including the celebrity ambassadors of the various companies involved – are delighted with the results…
However, Mike Burdon, president of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, says: ‘About one in a thousand people who undergo lens replacement surgery for any reason is left with permanent vision loss due to complications such as infection or bleeding into the eyeball.’”
If there are no '
contemporary figures for the numbers of refractive surgery procedures performed in the UK’, as Bruce Allan has stated, then these quoted figures are pure fantasy, and they cannot claim '
the vast majority are delighted' when there are no recorded statistics for damaged patients!
And of course celebrities are happy - Ruth Langsford a case in point - because they’re generally paid, be it with cash or free surgery!
I spoke to Thea late yesterday afternoon and she told me that she believed the article was going in, even though she hadn’t been sent the final PDF to confirm this, normally received by midday on Saturday for Sunday publication, but Mail on Sunday health editor Eve Simmons had assured her there didn’t appear to be any problem with it.
Optical Express patients Suzanne Cudden and Carl Goodman were both interviewed and photographed as the two case studies to be featured. (I told Carl they’d want him to wear a pink shirt for the pics - and they did! He refused, joking this morning that’s the reason they cut him out of the piece!)
Carl is a perfect example of the problems suffered by so many patients fitted with multifocal lenses simply to lose reading glasses.
Read his informative and well researched 'Carl G' posts here -
www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...ve-lens-exchange-rle
More importantly, in respect of Thea’s article, Carl very recently underwent a seemingly successful explant of his right lens at MEH (Moorfields Eye Hospital).
Please note, MEH is an NHS hospital, and should not be confused with Moorfields Private, where Bruce Allan fattens his bank account by regularly removing perfectly healthy lenses from the eyes of people who trust the doctor to do them no harm!
I should perhaps also mention Julian Stevens, his colleague at MEH, and Moorfields Private, who has on occasion (and of course I have evidence of this) written to his damaged private patient’s GP and had them referred to his NHS clinic so that he didn't have to personally fund their treatment.
Last year I met with MEH CEO David Probert and MD Nick Strouthidis to discuss my concerns about Julian’s unethical behaviour (and my concerns that most Moorfields surgeons use NHS email addresses to correspond with their private patients) but nothing has been done that I’m aware of, and I’ll be returning to the subject at a later date.
ROTFLMAO - '
impartial patients’ advice’!! And Brucie is of course one of the ‘experts’ who profits from these ops!
(An educated guess that Susan Harrison - happy case study in the article - is one of Brucie’s private Moorfields patients btw)
Thea Jourdan told me last week that another journalist had been brought on board to help with the article because it was so complicated, which may have contributed to a number of errors I've noted.
For example, '
They come in a variety of types and the operations are sold under a variety of brand names including Alcon, Clarivu, Carl Zeiss and Fine Vision.’
Alcon, Carl Zeiss and Fine Vision are not operations!
And many online readers are commenting without understanding that the piece is about risky and unnecessary refractive lens exchange surgery (RLE), not to be confused with necessary cataract surgery!
I was on the train to Manchester last Thursday when we had another detailed conversation, with Thea reading out her draft for me to point out any glaring mistakes.
She was shocked when I corrected ‘
hundreds of people are being treated on the NHS’, to '
many thousands of people', damaged by laser and lens surgery, because private clinics only provide twelve months post op care.
NB: I understand that Bruce Allan may offer two years, but even so, compare this with the warranty on a new car, or any other disposable commodity, because your eyes are not replaceable, no matter how long the warranty!
I was obviously very pleased when Thea told me that she’d signed off her piece with my comment that government regulation is urgently needed. She read it to me and it was perfect, no mention of Optical Express, and NO reason for ANL lawyers to object.
Hence my shock last night!
I spoke with Thea a little while ago to find out who made the decision to trash her article and translate it into yet another advertorial. She told me that the last copy she saw - although she wasn’t sent the PDF, which she normally is - included Carl Goodman’s case study, not Suzanne’s, and my quote at the end.
Thea genuinely believed that Carl and I were cut so the article would fit the space. I disagreed, and again explained why, not forgetting that this is the second Mail article about the industry featuring MBE clients recently, without any mention of my campaign for regulation etc..., and no mention that Optical Express was the surgery provider.
I pointed out that if there was shortage of space then other paragraphs could have been cut, because it is surely more important to publicise the fact that there is no regulation of the industry, that many thousands of people are damaged by risky and unnecessary procedures, that the NHS are funding aftercare for many thousands damaged by the private sector...
And this is nonsense...
Hands up anyone who's had success complaining to any of the above organisations?
Meanwhile, I am surprised that my comment ('Best rated') has not been removed as my comments generally are!
PS: I was so disgusted that I didn't even buy a hard copy for my files as I usually do.