SPEC SAVERS vs. THE NHS

SPEC SAVERS vs. THE NHS

Now this has been going on 6 weeks now and it’s starting to piss me right off.

The fact of the matter is this. Charlie, my son who is 6 years old, has an abnormality in his left eye. His pupil is the shape of a teardrop and disappears under his eyelid as it seems to pull up and to the left. Normally while light is hitting it. Now they say this is nothing to worry about and to treat it as a birth mark. Recently I went to Spec Savers ( tossers) and they say he has a stigmatism in his left eye, so he needs glasses, they also say his sight in this eye is not great, his right eye however is perfect. So I had questions like

Is his sight affected because of his pupil?

Will it get worse?

How can we protect his good eye?

The bright light, normally the sun, makes him squint; can we protect his eye from the light?

Spec Savers (tossers) were not very fourth coming in comforting my concerns. I asked that he be referred back to the eye hospital as now he has to wear his glasses every single day and for everything. This fact made me sad.

So we get the referral to the eye hospital. Now we were under them before when he was born. His pupil fascinated the hospital and they wanted to keep an eye on his development. He was discharged when they felt his eye shape would not cause him problems. He was tested for most things, just to make sure he could see and that he was not colour blind. The hospital (grrrr) suggested that this kind of abnormality came with a speech problem. But as Charlie grew up they see this was not the case.

So back to the eye clinic. They re test his eyes and confirm with what Spec Savers said. They agreed that Charlie’s eye needed to be protected from sunlight and gave me a NHS voucher for re-active lenses. Now they could have given him tinted glasses, but I felt this would set him aside the other children in his class by having tinted eye wear. (The fact the boy is a ginger nugget is enough for him to battle LOL) Or he would have to have 2 pairs of glasses and change them over constantly. Now he is 6, so leaving them places and breaking them is a higher risk. So I felt yes, one pair of specs that changed to the light would be perfect.

However, Spec Savers (spit) say no. Even though the NHS had written a voucher for this requirement they still refused to do it for free. They wanted us to pay 40 quid for the re-active lenses. I said no way, it’s on the NHS and so it should be free. We ordered the normal glasses and then went about our day.

Monday we had to revisit the eye hospital. We turned up with Charlie’s new glasses that my self and his dad have had nothing but trouble with. Getting Charlie to wear these glasses has become a task and a half. He constantly rubs his eyes and looks over or under the lenses. I asked him repeatedly if they hurt or was uncomfortable. He didn’t seem to complain so much as just didn’t want to wear them.

So they test his bad eye, covering his good eye to hear him say ‘I can’t see’ and so they change the size of the letters ‘I can not see, it’s blurry.’ They take the glasses away and tell us that his left eye was meant to be 0.25 and they are at 2.50. This is a big mistake and told us to go back to Spec Savers (punch) and get them changed. They told us that Charlie should go back to his old glasses until I receive a new voucher that I can take where ever I wish. I spoke to them about the refusal of re- active lenses on the NHS and she said she would look into it for us.

So I march on down to Spec Savers, I ask for the manager and get the same bird I had to annoy about the re-active lenses. (Great) She remembered me and checked the glasses. She stood there claiming they done to what the prescription was asking. So she passed the buck to the NHS. I asked if she wanted to ring the eye hospital and she did. Now from where I was standing, it sounded like she ‘yes’d’ the women to death on the phone and said she would sort it out her end. But when she got off the phone she point blank refused the re-active lenses all over again. And then… said the glasses were of the prescription the NHS gave and so there is nothing to do.

I soon turned on my heels and was out of there. Livid of course.  

What the fuck is up with the world? What if we had paid out 40 quid for the re-active lenses, we would have been stuck with glasses that he could not use. What fucking pricks!

So I am waiting for a new voucher to take to another eye specialist and hopefully get glasses that he can see out of! And maybe get someone that will push for the re-active lenses on the NHS.

I know I am ranting on and this subject pisses me off no end. I hate that I have to wear glasses. I too have a stigmatism so I can not get cheapo contact lenses or else I would have them. But they cost a lot of money that I have not got. I hate that they are not helping my son with the care of his eyes. Why could they not give him the right prescription and the re-active lenses and then deal with the cost with the NHS. It just pisses me off the way they all want to cover their own arses. What about my son’s eye FFS!

* Deep breath*

Anyway... that’s my moan on that subject… my next blog is to cuss out the friendship with police officers…. Stay tuned.