childrens glasses ?

[jane130]

my son needs glasses , it was picked up in an eye test at school and we went to an optician to get him checked. the optician has refered him to the local eye hospital . trouble is he was refered 4 weeks ago and i ahve had a letter today saying they have no available appointments and will be in touch in 2 weeks to let me know what they are going to do about it :mad:

meanwhile my 5 year old hasn;lt got the glasses he needs, can i got to an optician and ask them to give him glasses now to see him through until he has been to the eye hospital for a full evaluation and then get new ones if the prescription isn't right ?

[mrcow]

Take him to an optician right now

It will not interfere with what the hospital does at all. Some opticians don't like the fact that a hospital may be taking over (so I heard but never experienced) but when this same thing happened to my son, I just explained on booking the appointment and they were fine.

My son has a squint as well as long sightedness and corneal damage and the optician and the hospital have worked quite well in conjuction with each other.

It's important to get glasses early if they are needed in terms of squints etc as you only have up to a certain aged window to get these things corrected (around aged 7-8ish).

Of course, you can just take him to the optician and tell them that school said he needs glasses and not even mention the hospital (which is what I'd probably be tempted to do).

You can get really cool glasses these days btw. Specsavers do a range of Mr Men, or Acton Man or Spongebob Squarepant. My son currently has Clone Wars which he adores. The NHS isn't what it used to be when it comes to glasses!

[mrcow]

Just to add.....there is no reason for the prescription not to "be right" if it's being performed by a qualified optician.

[tidus]

If the optician had found a prescription that he/she was happy with they would have recommeded getting glasses. You've not told us the reason why your child was reffered.

A common reason is that the optician couldn't find a prescription that definitely helped (not uncommon with a 5yr old) and has reffered for you to see somedoby else with greater expertise.

Regards the delay, this is the NHS... you could see somebody private.

Its unlikely that a few weeks delay will make much difference in the long term because a condition present at 5 is likely to have been present since birth. If it was urgent the optician would have indicated this on the referal, and they would have seen you by now, so its non-urgent.

[mrcow]

If the optician had found a prescription that he/she was happy with they would have recommeded getting glasses.


Hi

This is not true.

The school's refereral for my son never mentioned the word glasses.

The OPs child needs to see a qualified optician, and soon. Delaying it for months is not a good idea.

[tidus]

The child in question has seen an optician, its in the first paragraph......:confused:

In some areas children will be refered direct to the childrens dept of the local hospital, but mostly the parents are advised to take them to a local optician, as happened in this case. The optician then made the refferal. I suggest you re read the OP.

[jane130]

I optician stated to me she wanted hims een by the end of the month , The delay is caused becuase our dr didn;t send the referal through and the last of appointment availability at the hospital .

to be honest the optician was running late , stated that "he obviously needs glasses but if you go to the hospital we can get a more accurate prescription" I wonder if an optician who wasn;t running late may have taken a bit more time and been able to get and accurate prescription there and then .

I think I am going to take him for a second opinion at another opticians and see what they say .