Free Eye Test at Boots

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  • Celtic
    Celtic Posts: 48 Forumite
    If your mother or father has been ever treated for glaucoma,
    You are automaticaly allowed free eye tests on the NHS at any optician once you reach forty !
    Were all Dooooooooomed !
  • odowdchr
    odowdchr Posts: 800 Forumite
    medianige wrote:
    Interesting but true: if you work on a computer as a substantial part of your employment, or if tasks you do require you to use a high level of concentration when transferring/inputting data to a computer, your employer is obliged under health and safety legislation to pay for an annual eye test.

    Check the HSE website for exact detail.

    If your optician says that you need glasses SPECIFICALLY for computer work (i.e. not just for reading or driving or general wear), your employer is also obliged to part pay for the glasses. They can nominate specific opticians or even bring eye-testing on-site.

    Also...sort it out before you go. You normally have to take a form from work that the optician completes for employer's H+S records. It's no good asking for the money back if you've already been and had the test done independently (as muggins here found out..)
  • Re the free eye test if you're over 40 and parents had glaucoma - I was asked the glaucoma question by an optician and 'inadvertently' said yes cos I confused glaucoma with cataracts - my Dad had the latter. They've never checked it and I go on getting a free eye test evey year.
  • Mantrib
    Mantrib Posts: 2 Newbie
    You don't appear to have to enter an e-mail address or mobile number to enroll...
  • carpy
    carpy Posts: 1,083
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    do you get pressured into buying new glasses/lenses when you have these 'free' eye tests?
  • Carter74uk
    Carter74uk Posts: 15 Forumite
    I would certainly advise everyone to take advantage of any offer of a free test. I had a routine test recently and was shocked to be diagnosed with glaucoma (I'm 31). Luckily I visited an optician who was extremely thorough and tested for this but I have been on other occasions over the years and no other optician has done so. The above is particularly true if there is a family history or you are short-sighted. I understand that males of African-Caribean ethnicity are also at a higher risk.

    I would urge anyone who has noticed any problems to get seen as soon as possible. I occasionally noticed a slight loss of periperhal vision or tiredness in the evenings which I always attributed to eye strain.

    The good news is that in most cases, while it's not reversible, it is treatable.

    So go on, check yourself out!
    Val :)
  • alikat_3
    alikat_3 Posts: 210 Forumite
    carpy wrote:
    do you get pressured into buying new glasses/lenses when you have these 'free' eye tests?

    No, they shouldn't as they are not allowed by law. I had a free eye test at Boots just after christmas, as very suddenly, I couldn't read small print etc. I made it clear I was going to shop around, with no problem. I was prescribed veri focals which I did not buy in boots as I explained during eye test that I spent long periods of time at a laptop, but with a TV in the same room & when I borrowed my partners reading glasses they were excellent for working at laptop but glancing in long vision with reading glasses caused me headaches.
  • lisyloo
    lisyloo Posts: 29,583
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    do you get pressured into buying new glasses/lenses when you have these 'free' eye tests?

    Just tell them you are on your lunch hour, or meeting someone, or have to be somewhere but you would like to come back another day.
    If you are charming and pleasant then they are not going to want to upset a potential customer.

    Being charming really does get you a better result than being evasive.
  • GTG
    GTG Posts: 445
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    Just tell them you are on your lunch hour, or meeting someone, or have to be somewhere but you would like to come back another day.

    A friend of mine tried this one and the opticians assistant said "that's fine" at which point she smiled and placed his perscription in a filing cabinet saying "I'll keep the perscription safe here, we don't want it to go missing and then have to charge you for a test, do we?
  • carpy
    carpy Posts: 1,083
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    that's terrible.......surely by law they should give you your prescription?
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