News post
OutsideClinic supports at pop-up eye clinic in Swindon
As it was a local event to our head office, Lauren Kearney, OutsideClinic's dispensing optician, clinical and patient contact advisor, joined VCHP optometrist Karen Gennard, helping 11 people who visited the clinic on the day. For most of those seen, it was their first eye test and a much-needed health check, with two people referred to a GP or secondary care.
"I just wanted to say a huge thank you to OutsideClinic and their team for all their support. It was great that Lauren could join me; she was just brilliant – so organised, and she had a real empathy with the patients. There were lots of laughter and smiles throughout the day, and the kit that OutsideClinic provided was an efficient set-up."
Karen Gennard
Lauren, who has been with OutsideClinic for over three years, assisted Karen by taking the details of each patient and then completing the dispense after the eye examination. We asked Lauren about the experience; she said: "I met a mixture of lovely people, all with very different backgrounds and people who have fallen on difficult times. The work VCHP do is so important it cannot be put into words. It was a fulfilling experience. I wanted to give back to my community and utilise my skills, which was exactly what I wanted to do. I hope to work with VCHP again and help those most in need."
VCHP is a small charity which provides eye care services free of charge to homeless and vulnerable people. Unfortunately, homeless people suffer more eye problems than the general population and find high-street opticians challenging to access. They currently have clinics in seven cities across the UK.
As a company, we have worked with Vision Care for Homeless People sporadically over the years, and many of our optometrists work closely with them, including one of our Professional Services optometrists, Steve Clark, who helped set up a clinic in Leeds. We also loan equipment for them to use as often as possible, for example, in the newly established Gloucester clinic in 2021.
Lynda Oliver, OutsideClinic Head of Wellbeing and External Relationships, has a close relationship working with the charity and said: "It's fantastic how much the charity has grown and how far it's spread. They have a great team of passionate professionals carrying out much-needed optical services for those most in need of our towns and cities. We are so pleased to have been of some small help to them over the years and look forward to supporting them for many years to come."
