Eye Care Services Information for Patients in England

Your service is provided by: OutsideClinic Ltd.

The responsible director is Mr Nick Wingate.

Our registered/trading office is at: Stirling House,

10 Viscount Way, Swindon SN3 4TN Tel: 01793 642200

Web: www.outsideclinic.co.uk

We provide NHS funded mobile sight tests. If you are eligible for an NHS funded sight test, you may obtain mobile services as follows:

We provide NHS funded mobile sight tests.

If you are eligible for an NHS funded sight test, you may obtain mobile services as follows:

• At home: if you are unable to leave home unaccompanied because of physical or mental illness or disability.

• At a residential or care home: if you normally live there and you are unable to leave the home unaccompanied because of physical or mental illness or disability.

Patients can request services by calling FREEPHONE 0800 60 50 40 If you have seen a particular practitioner before you may be able to request to see them again.

You qualify for a free NHS funded sight test if you are:

• 60 or over

• Under 16. Under 16, 17, or 18 and in full-time education

• Diagnosed with diabetes or glaucoma

• Considered to be at risk of glaucoma (as advised by an ophthalmologist)

• Aged 40 or over and the parent, brother, sister, son or daughter of a person diagnosed with glaucoma

• Registered blind or partially sighted

• Eligible for an NHS complex lens voucher (your optician will advise on your entitlement)

• Claiming Benefit (Universal Credit, Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income-based Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit Guarantee Credit or receiving Tax Credits and meeting qualifying conditions)

• On a low income and named on a valid HC2 (full help) or HC3 (partial help) certificate

You may qualify for an NHS optical voucher to help with the cost of your spectacles or contact lenses if you are: claiming certain benefits or on a low income and named on a valid HC2 (full help) or HC3 (partial help) certificate; eligible for an NHS complex lens voucher; aged under 16; or aged 16, 17 or 18 in full time education. You have the right to use your optical voucher with any supplier.

When testing your sight, we will ensure that all legal requirements relating to health and safety in the workplace are satisfied; and that we strictly follow the requirements and recommendations of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

As a patient you have the right to be treated by us with fairness and with dignity. We will test your sight using sound clinical practice and using modern techniques  and instruments. After your sight test we will give you your optical prescription or a statement that you do not need a prescription. We ask you to give our staff accurate information about the illness or disability which prevents you from being able to go to a high street optician without another person’s help. We also ask you to treat our staff with courtesy and to keep to any appointment you have made with us. If you break your appointment without giving us reasonable notice, we reserve the right to make a charge.

We treat all clinical information about your treatment with complete confidentiality, although we may sometimes need to inform your family doctor about our clinical findings during your sight test. We may also need, with your agreement, to refer you to a hospital eye department in which case we will supply them with all the relevant clinical details. We may sometimes need to make your records available to authorised staff from the relevant NHS body for whom we provide services. When handling your personal information, we will always abide by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the UK Data Protection Act 2018. Full details as to how we process and store your data are available in our Privacy Notice which is available by contacting our office on 01793 642200 or on our website  www.outsideclinic.co.uk

If you’re unhappy about eye care that you’ve received from or on behalf of the NHS, you have a right to complain using the NHS complaints procedure. The first step is to speak to the practitioner or practice concerned. OutsideClinic has a complaints procedure, and most concerns are normally resolved informally via this route. If you would like to make a complaint or a comment, you can contact OutsideClinic on FREEPHONE 0800 60 50 40.

To make a complaint using the NHS complaints procedure, contact your local integrated care board (ICB). If you’re not sure which ICB to contact, you can do a postcode search on the NHS Organisation Data Service website. The name of the ICB appears under ‘Higher Health Authority.’ Web address is: https://odsportal.digital.nhs.uk/Geographic/Search

If your complaint relates to your sight test and you are not happy with how your complaint has been handled either by us or your relevant NHS body, you will be advised of your right to take your complaint to the Health Service Commissioner (Ombudsman).

If your complaint relates to your spectacles, you can contact the Optical Complaints Consumer Service, 2-8 Market Square, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 3UZ.