To be really worried the NHS will say no more glasses for my DD?

[DontTakeThemAway]

DD is 8 and got glasses in November 2021. She has an eye condition which was picked up by the health visitors at her 10mo check and she’s been under a consultant ever since. She had surgery in December 2020 to try and help the condition (she’ll never get rid of it) and it helped a bit but not a lot, so the consultant said glasses was the next stage to try before another operation.
The prescription itself is tiny (+0.75 in each eye) but there’s a special coating on the lenses that apparently really helps the eye condition - I think it's the extra thin plus anti glare/reflect.

It’s worked, because I have a completely different child with glasses than without. No more silly accidents in the school playground, no more falling over as we walk to school or anywhere, no more having to take the car everywhere as she can be trusted to walk and look around and see things! She’s also gone up 6 bookbands at school and is well on her way to being pulled off the scheme completely. Her confidence has also improved as well, so much so she put herself forward for school council this year (didn’t get it but it’s a massive improvement for her to actually go for it!)

She was without her glasses for 2 weeks in the summer when they broke and she was back to falling constantly; lots of grazed knees and bruised hands from falls. She had a nasty accident at holiday club where she fell down 3 concrete steps trying to walk between rooms (held in a different school to hers with portacabin classrooms and she needed to go from one portacabin to the hall and fell down the stairs) she was thankfully ok but an ambulance had to be called and she spent the night in hospital for a concussion and a broken arm. Again since having her glasses she’s completely fine and never had a repeat.

We had a checkup for her condition earlier this week and her consultant said her eyes have improved since having the glasses that she will now have to “justify” such a small prescription to NHS England. I told her all about the falls and the difference in my DD since getting her glasses and the consultant said “I know, if it was up to me she’d keep themwe just have to hope they agree".

I am literally at the point that I will do anything to have my DD keep her glasses. She loves her glasses, she tucks them into the case at night and says goodnight to them, if anyone says anything negative about them she replies “But at least I can see”. She also looks incredibly smart and grown up in her glasses.

Is there anything I can do to make sure she keeps her glasses? Or is this going to be something else I’m going to have to pay for? I will pay for it privately if needed but I'm a single parent so it will mean it comes from somewhere else to pay. I know the glasses are expensive to the NHS because we take the prescription to an optician and we always have to wait as it goes to the NHS for approval (usually wait 3-4 weeks instead of the standard 2 for her glasses).

There may be an obvious answer to this that I'm missing, but surely you just keep the ones she has, and try and put a little money aside as you can for replacements further down the line?

I don’t imagine you’d need the lens made thinner on such a low prescription. My prescription is low like 0.25. Which is ridiculous to get glasses but I had Bell’s palsy so couldn’t really blink properly on one side and found the wind really drying and had a weird light sensitivity going on. Anyway I got two pairs of designer glasses with all the coatings for under £200 quid. I can’t imagine it’d be more than £50 or so for kids glasses.

The anti glare coating did really help my balance at the time though. My eye would sort of spasm with certain lights photophobic I think it was called and it made me feel really off balance like one half was moving fractionally slower than the other. I can understand a child who moves much faster would trip up under similar circumstances.

Speak to the optician who fills the prescription so you know how much it will cost should it come to it. That might help you worry less.
It is ridiculous that childrens glasses are not free ,whatever they need, I agree. Plus as many replacements as they need too. Children have far more accidents than adults as they grow and get used to their new size.

Cost the glasses and see how much they would be

Specially thinned lenses are purely cosmetic (I have them). For the prescription you had I don't think I its possible to thin rhose so possible sales pitch there. Antiglare is normally just for driving? I would buy some from pound shop and see if they still work. If they do then you know you don't need the special items.

Plus you can order glasses online very cheap too

The optician we go to for my son is very good at ensuring that his glasses requirements are met under nhs funding. They know which boxes need to be ticked and do so iyswim.
It seems from your post that your prescription is set by consultant and then filled by optician, and it is the consultant whos comment has raised the worry. Talk to the optician- they will have a lot more experience of actually getting glasses covered by nhs. And if they can't find one who can.

Of course a child's glasses should be covered by nhs, can't believe a pp saying they shouldn't be. Kids have a right to this essential treatment.

Did you even read the OP? He daughter has a medical condition!!! She need the glasses not for being long or short sighted but for other reasons. Cheap glasses from the pound shop are not going to help 🙄

This is a child with an eye condition which has required surgery already and who struggles with depth perception to the extent she falls and struggles with reading.

If the NHS cannot support children in this situation then what the hell is the point?

Worth popping into Boots (only high street opticians I trust, I too have complex eyes) and asking to speak to a manager/assistant manager and asking them to price them up for you and talk you through the discounts they do Offer for kids. Historically kids glasses have been subject to discounts and Boots tend to be good. Might just put your mind a bit more at rest/help you plan if you do end up paying.
Does her prescription change much? If not, while still an expense it may not be a regular expense.

The OP has already been very clear - they are recommended by a consultant, and they make a massive difference to this 8-year old. On what basis do you know better than a consultant???

NHS funding works on an approved protocol, which can be appealed. It sounds as if you have the Consultants backing.
OP, listen to this. A somewhat different circumstance but I had the same sort of blockage earlier this year. I was advised that I needed specific eye drops for severe MGD by my optician (I had exhausted all possible non-prescription options) so he wrote to my GP to get them prescribed. The GP said they were not allowed to prescribe them, so I was sent to a consultant in the "next door" health trust area (because I literally live on a boundary) who said I needed them and informed the GP of this. The GP still said that in their area they weren't allowed to prescribe them even though the consultant said I needed them. So I appealed and made it clear I would fight, and suddenly they were available!

Perversely, after taking statins for a year already, the GP happened to mention that if I lived the other side of that boundary (where the eye drops are prescribed routinely when needed - the consultant told me so) I wouldn't even be on statins. The threshold for prescribing them is lower in my area that 300 yards down the road because of a specific demographic in my area to which I do not belong!!!

Thanks everyone will look at all these options.

The glasses I would guess cost £150-200 which is just not doable even with saving up. She's had 3 pairs this year with the replacement so that's an extra £550-600 a year to find - they first two pairs where also repaired twice each.

The consultant writes the prescription and gives the voucher and then I take that prescription and voucher to our chosen optician to get the glasses - the voucher is first sent to the the NHS to get "approval" for funding then the glasses are ordered which is why it takes around 4 weeks to get the glasses when DDs chosen, but I will definitely discuss it with the optician and see if there's a way they can still be funded.

Will also look at cheaper options like Asda and Online Services as well, thank you all.

Specially thinned lenses are not cosmetic for everyone just because yours are.

Thinned anti glare lenses actually make a significant improvement to vision for some problems.

As a veteran of children's glasses which felt like a second mortgage, for a child of this age if you have any way to save up the extra to pay for Flexon frames I found them to be far and away more durable than anything else. I definitely got the money back several times over.

However they are not cheap, especially if like mine you need a spare pair so the up front payment might not be an option for you.

Op that seems expensive even for the added extras. I have just bought 3 pairs of glasses for dd. All thinned out and anti this and that, literally the best of everything and it was only £100 for all 3 (we got 3 pairs as she loses them daily). I do think you could get one pair with all your dd’s needs much cheaper.

of course this should be paid for on the Nhs. It’s for a child to see the god sakes. It’s the way of the world unfortunately. shop around and speak to the dispensers as they have always been good at getting round the nhs rules. If your dd will need the same prescription that will hopefully help as you will only need to buy one pair and really look after them.

I know it’s a cost that is unrealistic for many and it’s so important. Could you get a loan or sell some items? I’d tell you to fight the nhs but you may then be waiting ages while it all gets sorted and your poor dd would be without much needed glasses. It’s actually awful that this is happening when the Nhs wastes so much money.

Your figures don’t sound right, without the NHS voucher Specsavers glasses for children are from £65 with £35 for the coating. They have cheaper frames but obviously that depends on size.

i don’t think you should have to pay for the frames if she needs them she needs them. It may be that getting the coating funded may be harder. Ds has a strong prescription and I have to pay for his lenses to be thinned.

Is it even possible to thin lenses with such a low prescription? (Asking purely out of curiosity as I always thought it was just something for stronger prescrptions)

I’d ask an optometrist how much the glasses are. A prescription of +0.75 even with all the coatings: anti-scratch, anti-glare, anti-UV is usually really cheap. As in under £50 for a pair. The wait time is probably due to bureaucracy, not expense.

I have several health conditions, one of which is rheumatoid arthritis. I have had uveitis as a complication and very dry eyes. I also have vision problems due to a neurological condition. I need thin, tinted, antiglare lenses. If I don't have them, even with the identical prescription, I fall down steps, off kerbs and sometimes over nothing at all. They cost an absolute fortune and I insure them separately because I cannot manage without them. Definitely not cosmetic.

I agree there is no point in thinning the lenses for a +0.75 prescription! Waste of money.

Oh let me guess Disco - this is yet another subject about which you are an armchair expert.

Thinning lenses is not just a cosmetic thing. Suggest you google rather more about eye conditions affected by flare and affecting depth perception.

It’s for a child that can’t see properly and has falls without them FFS

It depends a bit on the type of lens and correction but for young children it can be necessary for the glasses to stay in place on a small face without a prominent nose. It can be about the weight of the lens as much as the thickness.

Even low levels of correction are not always that thin on the cheapest lenses for a child. Many opticians don't even offer the cheapest lenses for that reason so its possible that lenses you think of as normal as a paying customer are actually thinned but its the lowest price you see on the list.

Well my eyes are -20.5 so I have a lifetime of experience with optometrists, opthamologists, retina specialists, contact lenses and yes glasses.

But quite frankly, thinning lenses does nothing for glare or anti-reflection at all (assuming that’s what you meant by “flare”). That’s why it’s a coating which is applied to any lens.

In fact, the high index (thinnest you can buy) glasses lenses have issues with distortion of peripheral vision and sometimes colour outlines in yellow or blue appear around objects. Of course, this is usually at higher prescriptions because a good optometrist won’t upsell you things you don’t actually need.

It’s usually a question of sacrificing a bit of optic quality so the lens can fit in the glasses frame without sticking out too much.

Thinning lenses only thins them. There is no point doing it for a -0.75 prescription.