COVID-19

How has Covid-19 impacted your local opticians?

Routine sight tests and eye examinations have now stopped across all opticians in UK in light of the coronavirus pandemic with the recommendation from The college of optometrists. Many opticians have closed their doors in line with government guidelines and to help prevent the disease spreading any further. However a handful of opticians remain open only for essential and urgent services. This is a worrying time for patients who may need to access eye care from their local opticians. 

In light of the recent Covid-19 developments, General Optical Council the UK regulator of opticians has released a statement to relax the rules concerning sight test intervals .This step allows customers who need glasses to obtain them without having to visit an optician for a new eye exam. But a qualified optician will still need to approve the prescription.

What should I do if I have an appointment booked?

Given the circumstances, the best thing to do is to check your opticians website for initial guidance. It is very important we are all following the public health body instructions and delay your appointment until this time has passed.

What if I have an emergency?

A handful of opticians are keeping their doors open to offer urgent and essential appointments. The best thing to do would be to check online to see which opticians located in your area are still open.

If you are a key worker then essential eye care is still available for you. Other essential care is also available to the general public depending on their eye needs.

Urgent care including clinical advice or treatment for conditions such as red eye, contact lens discomfort, a foreign object in the eye, sudden change in vision, flashes and floaters which might suggest detachment is available as normal.

Rest assure all measures have been put in place to try and keep the social distancing rules for patients. With Optometrists being key workers and having to work in such close proximity with the public they are required to wear the appropriate PPE (Personal protective equipment).  

Is Eye Department still open in Hospital?

Many Hospital are continuing to provide urgent and emergency eye care for everyone who needs it.

However in response to the current coronavirus situation, many have had to delay all non-urgent treatment, this included routine cataract surgeries. 

Hospital have explained that each individual case is unique and that their doctors and nurses are reviewing each case separately. This is to try and minimise the number of people having to travel to a hospital. If your appointment is effected then one of the team will be in touch. 

We do want to stress that NHS is still open. If you feel your eye health is deteriorating, your vision has dramatically changed, you are experiencing severe eye pain or can not open your eye for any reason then we urge you to seek medical advice. Get in touch with your local optician who will be able to help. If all Opticians within your area are closed then please get in touch with emergency services by calling 111 or 999.

Is Fly Optical still open?

We are delighted to say yes we are still open and here to help in anyway we can. We have put measures in place to comply with the Government guidelines. Our expert optometrists are still on hand and are happy to help with any of your eye health enquires, so please get in touch with us no matter how small your enquire. Email us at askfly@flyoptical.co.uk and you’ll have a response back from our optometrists.

We are still able to accept orders and will do our best to process and get it ready asap. Delivery time may now take slightly longer than normal, so we ask you be patient.

 If you have any further queries please get in touch through askfly@flyoptical.co.uk