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).

No one has said the OPs DD doesn’t need glasses. All some of us have said (including notably experts such as opticians) is that she doesn’t need her lenses thinned as it is pointless at such a low strength prescription.

btw- no consultant optician or regular optician “prescribes” thinned lenses. So it’s not possible that the DD has actually been prescribed thinning for her lenses.

Surely if she needs the prescription and is under 16 then the lenses are funded by the NHS.

My son has had glasses since he was 1. He is now 5 and has new lenses every 3 - 6 months. The prescription is done by specsavers, no longer by the consultant he is still under and he gets his glasses in 2 weeks. No one has ever said its sent away to be approved by the NHS, the voucher Is done by the optometrist doing the test.

Surely if she needs any correction then it'll be NHS funded!

I'm surprised she got these on the NHS for so long, TBH.

I have a pre-paid prescription card, but increasingly the prescriptions I need are no longer eligible to be prescribed, so I have to pay for them full-whack. I think it's just the way that the NHS is going.

The good news, OP, is that your daughter's prescription is so negligible that you can order customised glasses off the internet for cheap (and the lenses won't need thinning). With some prescriptions, it's really not advisable to get them online, and they'd still cost a fortune, but that's not applicable here.

I'm glad the glasses are helping your DD so much, and she's embraced wearing them.

With my DC the NHS contributed to the costs. So free eye test then a voucher towards frames and lenses. They don’t always cover the full costs.

The OP should get the biggest voucher though which is Voucher I for £204.80 which covers glasses prescribed by NHS trusts (hospitals) as that is where the consultant opticians usually are. But if her DD is discharged by the hospital which she fears as it appears the surgery has worked to help her DDs sight and she later gets glasses prescriptions from a regular optician she would only be eligible for Voucher A which is only £39.90 unless her DD has bifocals which is Voucher E for £68.80.

So there would probably be a small cost to pay out of pocket.

It bloody does. Ask your consultant and gp to provide them on the ground if mental and emotional health when justifying the prescription.

my daughter had a facial deformity - I can it that it was small but as she was growing it didn’t stay the same size but was on her face and grew as she grew, right in the middle of her face

i saw the gp who monitored it for a year and measured it and it doubled in size

referred us to a plastic surgeon he was very sympathetic and said
he was certain it was benign he was certain it would not cause any measure issues from a medical point of view but…
it was in an unfortunate position as as she headed towards year 5/6/7 that it would become potentially a cosmetic issue, that if it kept growing which it showed signs of that it might get knocked cut etc in the future - that the position meant it might effect glasses in the future
so he said
quick op now, GA, minimal scar minimal nhs resources or that she would be back in 20 years when it was x10 times the size and had been cut accidentally or mh anxiety due to bullying etc that he’d rather do it now
it didn’t come under protocol but he made a good call. She had it done like 8 years ago and was in and out in a morning and has a light gentle silver scar which you can not see. It was a good call and I relieved.

Don’t forget you can also use the frames and redo the lenses etc but there are resources and needs and they do have to balance them!

@ThingsIhavelearnt Unfortunately mental and emotional health are not reasons to get an NHS optical voucher. Nor have I ever seen an optical voucher provided by a GP.

If an optician or hospital is satisfied that the prescription is justified though, there is no issue and the glasses will be prescribed. Thinner lenses are not necessary with the prescription. I cannot comment on whether the coating can be justified as I don’t know what the eye condition is.

My son has a +5 prescription and needs bifocals. I still have to pay for the lenses thinning out myself (otherwise they’d be so thick they’d literally fall off his face!). I’d expect you to get the basic NHS voucher of around £35 towards the glasses but thinning and coating are things you’d have to pay for anyway.

If she can afford them.

I know you've said the frames have been fixed, but what state are they in?
DS got through quite a few different prescriptions one year, and the optician was getting twitchy about yet more frames. We said he loved the current frames, could they put a new lens in (he only needed one, the other was fine) cost the grand total of £14. Worth investigating?

Move to Scotland. Glasses and appointments for children are free.

My sons gets a pair free and a second pair half price. At specsavers a contribution is needed towards designer frames but not standard frames. His prescription is +7.

@stargirl1701 they are free in England too

So why is the OP concerned about paying then?

@stargirl1701 because the NHS will only fund glasses if they are clinically necessary and from the original post it sounds as if the consultant is concerned that they won’t be able to justify them as being necessary anymore.

In Scotland ALL prescriptions are free for children though.

Can you imagine not actually being able to see properly and this being the case? I pay for my lenses and glasses but I’m severely short sighted I’d be partially sighted without them. Not able to drive or work or do anything. But that’s fine.

Hope your daughter is sorted, OP.

One of my sons had 2 surgeries and wore bifocals from 5. His Consultant said he loved kids who broke their glasses, the ones who came with glasses as good as the day they got them not so much.

Not valid for a child under 16 as legally they have to see an optician in person.

My DD aged 4 is on her 4th pair of glasses in a year.

Some children, particularly small ones and/or those with disabilities, break and lose frequently.

Mine didn’t get any 100% free pairs of glasses. It could be because I avoided specsavers as they completely got my glasses wrong once so have always gone to a private optician (who does do NHS vouchers and free eye tests). 😕
Ah well too late now as they are all grown up.

My sons gets a pair free and a second pair half price. At specsavers a contribution is needed towards designer frames but not standard frames. His prescription is +7

The last time my daughter went to Specsavers, they'd stopped doing the second pair (free or at half price). She could only have one 'free' pair, which weren't designer, and which ended up costing an extra £50 to have them thinned and coated (her prescription is -6).

I don't recommend Specsavers.

I remember they did that for a while and then went back to doing it.

I suspect they lost customers who went off to other opticians.

My DD is currently like the OP's child in that her eyes are tested by a hospital consultant and then her glasses are made up at a separate optician.

We were recommended Specsavers as they are known to have frames that fit a small child.

🙄 this little girl had concussion and a broken arm in the 14 days she didn't have her glasses.

She doesn't WANT them, she NEEDS them. People shouldn't have to be on death's door to receive NHS support.

Although technically free in England the rules are different.

We lived in England when DD2 was 2/3 & she wasn't great at keeping her glasses on or looking after them (because she was a toddler) so they'd get lost or broken - optician in England refused to provide a new pair of glasses on the NHS as she'd already had 3 pairs & had apparently used her limit for the year, he told me I should make her be more careful with them - not sure if you've tried to keep glasses on a 2yo but it's not that easy & I had other things to do like work, cleaning etc so couldn't just follow her around all day

Moved back home shortly after & never had any issues with either DD1 or DD2 getting glasses when they needed them for whatever reason with scratch proof coating as standard & DD2 always got her milk bottle lens thinned for free & still does even though she's now 20 (-11 in one eye & -3 in the other so huge difference in lens thickness resulting in lopsided specs) although she's gotten much better at keeping them on & looking after them over the years.