West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street has officially opened a new flagship Optical Express clinic and treatment centre in Birmingham City Centre, bringing the latest diagnostic and treatment technologies in eye care to the city. Eye care experts Optical Express have invested over £3 million in the new facility, one of the largest investment the provider has ever made in a new clinic.
The new three floor, 10,000 square feet clinic and treatment centre is creating specialist jobs in Birmingham, with Optical Express recruiting new Optometrists and Ophthalmic Surgeons to join the clinic team.
West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street, said:
“It was a great pleasure to open Optical Express’s new ophthalmology clinic and treatment centre, which is another example of an innovative, forward-thinking business choosing to invest in Birmingham.
Of course, Optical Express aren’t new to the area - they have been providing eye care to patients in the West Midlands for more than 25 years.
“But their decision to invest in a 10,000 feet treatment centre is a clear vote of confidence in the city and the region.”
Optical Express Birmingham Clinic Manager, Jonathan Hodson, said:
“Offering a first-class experience to our patients is always our main objective, so it’s fantastic to be working in state-of-the-art facilities at the new clinic.
We encourage anyone who has an interest in improving their vision to come for a consultation. The outcomes, as determined by our clinicians and patients alike, from our private laser and Intraocular lens surgery procedures, are truly life enhancing.”
Optical Express CEO and Founder, David Moulsdale, said:
“Optical Express has been providing exceptional eye care to patients in Birmingham and surrounding areas for over 25 years. It’s great that one of our biggest investments in a new clinic – over £3 million – will serve an area with which we have such a longstanding connection.
We are determined that our response to the COVID-19 pandemic will be to continue to expand and invest in our excellent clinics. We’re aiming to retain and attract the very best local talent, and are recruiting for a variety of roles, including optometrists and clinic managers, across the country.”
The clinic will offer every patient a free consultation for laser or lens surgery which includes a comprehensive eye health check, using the latest diagnostic equipment.
The Optical Express clinic team will educate patients and the wider public on the many benefits, particularly environmental, of refractive surgery and ultimately help reduce the carbon footprint created by the eye care industry. Optical Express’s own research shows that every year in the UK alone, over 750 million contact lenses are thrown down the drain or into landfill, leading to a build-up of microplastics in our oceans1,2, and the carbon footprint created by the manufacturing and shipping of glasses is significant. Like all Optical Express clinics, the new Birmingham clinic will also provide a specialist recycling station for plastic contact lenses and their packaging.
The new clinic and treatment centre will also help to alleviate demand on local NHS services at a time when they are under increased pressure. Traditional forms of vision correction are currently having a significant impact on patients and NHS resources, particularly at NHS eye hospitals. Contact lenses carry a significant risk of infection, while bifocal and multifocal glasses are a major contributor to serious trips and falls, many of which result in hospital admission. Greater availability and uptake of vision correction surgery would address both these issues and reduce the number of patients requiring medical assistance, helping to reduce the burden on the NHS. Modern day surgical procedures provide extremely safe, effective and environmentally friendly vision correction solutions, with life-changing benefits.
The new Birmingham clinic will also offer cataract treatment, increasing capacity locally and helping to reduce lengthy NHS waiting times in the area. The backlog of patients awaiting NHS eye care services is a longstanding issue but the pandemic has made the problem significantly worse. The risk is particularly acute for those awaiting surgery for cataracts, a condition which most commonly worsens over time and can eventually cause blindness if not treated.
1 Optical Express survey of 3,104 Contact Lens wearers.
2 ACLM 2016 contact lens statistics
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