Blurred vision - Doctor or Optician

[Merryoldgoat]

I honestly don’t know who I need to see - can anyone advise?

I’ve been having blurred vision on and off for a few days now - it comes on at different times of the day and I can’t seem to find a trigger. I don’t have a headache with it.

I have high blood pressure which is controlled and I don’t wear glasses.

Who should be first port of call or does it not matter?

I would probably say GP by instinct but....
my dad had a torn retina a few years ago. Not only did the optician spot it (he went there after having problems), they got him a referral to a specialist.

And having seen the post above I now feel I should clarify.... it was specsavers.

Thanks for the later posts.

I’ve always found Specsavers fine I’m the past and DH has used them without incident for well over 15 years.

My GP is very good too so they would see me fast if necessary without a song and dance.

From personal experience I would say GP! My blurred eyesight which came on over a few days turned out to be sudden onset T1 diabetes. No real other symptoms, I was a bit hot but it was rather summer, tired but I was working crazy hours in a busy high stress job. My eyesight returned to normal when my blood sugars came back into range with insulin.

Th optician on the other hand just prescribed new glasses (which didn't help at all)

Optometrist first if you can get a quick appointment - otherwise GP first.
they’ll probably check your BP/sugar levels and then ask you to see Optometrist.
Ophthalmology referrals are incredibly long at the moment.

Oh and some spec savers are great - others awful. They’re franchises so it varies.

My nearest Specsavers are brilliant. They found a bleed in my eye, told me to go to GP to get checked out for diabetes, high blood pressure & cholesterol & asked me to go back to them in 3 months. I don't currently wear glasses or contacts, and they would not sell me any glasses in case my eyesight changed due to any possible medication I might be given after GP appointment. (I only had a very slight prescription).
Honestly couldn't fault them.

My colleague ended up having eye surgery and permanent damage because Specsavers missed her detached retina three times. Go to the hospital

Optician. I always think to myself they're doctors of the eyes.

Dental/mouth problems - dentist. They're doctors of the mouth etc.

I was going to say opticians. I am glad you have booked.
They will know if anything amiss.

Good wishes .

@Merryoldgoat 100% optician. They will refer you to the eye department at the hospital if need be.

Hope you're OK.

Hey!

I was diagnosed with an “eye problem” at the opticians, after having a migraine. For the most part, they were transient, but I also had sore eyes for some time. In between the migraines and sore eyes, I have nothing. I was found to have raised intracranial pressure after an OCT at specsavers, I was then sent to ED and had a CT Head, MRI head and other investigations to see what was going on.

Visual field loss/changes can be assessed by the optician. It’s their bag 😁

If there’s an eye hospital near you they will have an Aand E and you can walk in. In London there’s the Western Eye Hospital on the Marylebone Road, or Moorfields. I wouldn’t wait until Wednesday.

My Doctors surgery automatically direct you to the optician if you phone with eye problems. Must say though having had a few eye problems I'd always go straight to the optician over a GP now. I've been sent straight to the eye hospital by them on more than one occasion

I'd have gone with "wherever you can get an appointment soonest - but see you have one now, hope you get to the source of the problem.

The thing that puts me off specsavers et al is that you don't get to see the same person each time - I've been going to an independent optician, and seen same person each time, and he remembers history.

Thanks for the further comments.

Vision is less blurred today but still not perfect. I don’t think it’s an emergency so I’m happy to wait until tomorrow.

Hopefully I’m just getting old and need glasses now!

Not the gp. They specifically say that they do not deal with problems with eyes or teeth.

@Sugarplumfairy65

I’m not sure about that - my doctor has seen me when I’ve had conjunctivitis in the past - insisted I go in when I called for advice.

I don’t think eyes are as clear cut as teeth. Eg if an optician sees raised pressure in your eye you get sent to the doctor. If you have an abscess then the dentist can diagnose and prescribe

@Kingdomscroll that nearly happened to me, my local optician could find nothing wrong, a week later Moorfields diagnosed detached retina and cataract, this was 22 years ago. Today no optician touches my eyes, it’s Moorfields now,

Hmm if you could try get an opticians app pretty soon then I'd do that first if no problems are detected by optician gp might do. But where I live optician appointments are short and soonest is 6 weeks. So if problems persists I would speak to gp.

In my area (Bromley) we have a self referral NHS minor eye conditions service. There's a list of opticians online that are part of the scheme, you phone up your choice and they triage you then make an appointment with one of their optometrists. I had an issue recently and made an appointment within a couple of days (Specsavers but there was a long list of other participating opticians) and was really impressed. They did lots of tests including scans of my eyes, checking pressures, dilation and examination and diagnosed the issue there and then (posterior vitreous detachment). Had a follow up two weeks later to check everything was still good. I'm generally wary of NHS outsourcing services but was genuinely impressed. Not sure if it operates in all areas but maybe check online?

I was borderline on the glaucoma test at Boot's. They referred me directly and I got an NHS appointment at a local private hospital v quickly.

@StripyHorse

I would probably say GP by instinct but.... my dad had a torn retina a few years ago. Not only did the optician spot it (he went there after having problems), they got him a referral to a specialist.

Same here. Went straight to optician (never occurred to me to go to GP tbh) and had the operation two hours later.

That’s not really true. It’s very rare for an optician to actually refer someone to their GP for treatment. They might refer them for eg blood pressure or blood sugar checks. Or headaches if there is no ocular cause found.
Yes, you might write a letter to someone’s GP if they had high pressures, but only to say “please arrange an appointment with an ophthalmologist.” The GP doesn’t see them or contribute anything to the care of their eyes, they just add anything relevant from their medical history and pass it on to the hospital. It’s only really a technicality that optometrists refer these things via the GP, and that depends on your local rules anyway.

If it’s an emergency then opticians will refer urgently to the hospital without going via the GP, and it is the quickest way to get to the urgent treatment if it’s needed.

[quote Merryoldgoat]@Sugarplumfairy65

I’m not sure about that - my doctor has seen me when I’ve had conjunctivitis in the past - insisted I go in when I called for advice.

I don’t think eyes are as clear cut as teeth. Eg if an optician sees raised pressure in your eye you get sent to the doctor. If you have an abscess then the dentist can diagnose and prescribe[/quote]
Sorry, my above post was meant to quote this post but it didn’t work!