Learn your rights

Definitions

Optician, Optometrist and Ophthalmologist? While most of us are pretty familiar with the word “optician” there is some confusion over who does what in the eye care profession.

• Optician is now a generic word – most people think of the shop on the high street rather than the person. Actually the role was deregulated in the 1980’s in the UK. The people who work at an optician’s are “dispensing opticians” and “optometrists”. Optometrists are highly qualified eye professionals and they are responsible for testing your eyes. They also understand in detail the many problems and health issues related to eyes. Dispensing opticians may be qualified contact lens dispensing opticians, in which case they will be qualified to fit your lenses.
• Opthalmologists are eye surgeons. They normally work in hospitals and do not get involved in the retail side. Quite often they will receive referrals from optometrists in the event that an issue is flagged.

Contact Lens Aftercare

The maximum period of any prescription is 12 months. In some cases you will be invited back for follow-ups if your optometrist thinks you have an on-going issue which needs watching. Generally speaking, however, most people only need to go once a year. If you are being called in more frequently and have no problems you are probably over-paying for your eye care.

In fact, the majority of people may go up to 20 years without their prescription changing. You should be the one who owns this process, not your optician. They are your eyes and it’s your wallet. The chances are you will be the one who notices changes in your eyes in any case. By all means verge on the sign of caution, always go for after care at the first sign of problems but otherwise manage your own eyes.

Your prescription

Whenever you get your eyes checked, always ask for a copy of your prescription. It is your legal right, end of discussion. As a contact lens wearer you need two prescriptions, one for your glasses and one for your contact lenses. These are not the same.

It will be quicker and easier to buy contact lenses online with a prescription. In the UK the law states you cannot buy contact lenses without a prescription but this law does not apply to buying online from a website operated outside the UK. At GetLenses.co.uk, if you do not have a current prescription, your order can be processed by our sister site GetLenses.nl and posted from Holland at no extra cost to yourself.

Why the issue? Obviously, some greedier opticians will try to make sure you buy everything through their own practice. Some of the common excuses are below:

• “I can’t print out your prescription. It’s the system.” ANSWER: I’m sorry, you will have to write it out for me (each practice has its own forms)
• “I can’t give you it because of the Data Protection Act.” ANSWER: I am the end user, I am entitled to see my own data.
• “This is commercial confidential information. I don’t have to share it with you.” ANSWER: You are breaking the law. I shall report you to the General Optical Council and the Office of Fair Trading.
• “I can’t give you your prescription because your eye test was free. You have to buy the contact lenses from me to pay for this service.” ANSWER: Same as above.

In the end, if your optician is taking this approach, you should probably be wondering whether you should stay with them in any case. There are issues with bundles (free eye test paid for by product) but they generally mean you are over-paying in any case.

Guidance from the General Optical Council and British Contact Lens Association: The details which enable a lens to be ordered for you are referred to as a contact lens specification.This is not the same as your spectacle prescription. Your practitioner must issue you with a contact lens specification once your contact lens fitting is completed.

How does GetLenses validate your prescription?

Validation of your prescription can be done in two ways:

• You can fax or email a scan of your current specification / prescription
• We can contact your optician’s to confirm the specification / prescription

If you are buying lenses with a prescription it will need to be in-date prescription (within the last 12 months).

If you are buying contact lenses from Holland you should review our no prescription guidelines.

How do I cancel a direct debit with my optician?

It's not uncommon to see people across all sectors getting stuck with direct debits and standing orders through sheer inertia. We know we are losing money month on month but we never seem to get round to doing anything. If you are in this position with your contact lenses, act now and use our very simple templates to cancel your direct debit :

• Bank direct debit cancellation
• Optician direct debit cancellation

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