Wrong prescription in dd's glasses - now worried about damage

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

I've just come back from 2 weeks in Uganda and while away my dd who's 6 had a routine eye check at the hospital. She's been wearing glasses from the age of 3 for been short sighted and has regular checkups.

So my mum took her as I was away and the doctor looked really worried and said her eyes had deterirated badly as she couldn't see anything in the test. Then he realised that the prescription in her glasses isn't the same as the prescription that the hospital gave her last time.

Since the appointment last year I needed to get her some new glasses as her old frames were too small. Specsavers wouldn't let her have new glasses unless I paid for them as I didn't have a voucher (the hospital should have given me one apparantly and didn't). So I ended up having to fib to Specsavers and saying it had been more than a year since she had an eyetest - that way they would test her eyes again and she could glasses without me having to pay £70.

I trusted that Specsavers having qualified staff would be able to get the right prescription that she needed - well they didn't. The doctor said they were so wrong that she needed new glasses the following day - it couldn't even wait until the weekend. So mum had to take her to Specsavers with the hospital prescription and voucher and she now has the correct glasses. But she's been wearing ones which are too weak for 6 months - is this likely to have damaged her eyes? I am sooooooo mad with Specsavers.

ok - first things first. if your daughter is short sighted and the prescription is too weak then it won't have done any damage. if she is LONGsighted (a prescription with a + in front of it) then she needs to be seen by an ophthalmologist to make sure no long term damage is done.

secondly - specsavers don't always use "qualified" staff. by law, whoever takes measurements from a child (under 16) has to be at least an FBDO (dispensing opticians), and preferably an optometrist. but the person who helps your daughter choose the frame, and who fits it can essentially be totally unqualified. i used to work for Specsavers, and went into the company totally untrained and inexperienced. i started off as a receptionist and two months later was taking adult measurements and performing fields and pressures tests. the training i received was minimal, i pretty much thrown in the deep end.

thirdly - Specsavers could have issued the voucher themselves. if it is a repair voucher (which it essentially is as they had got too small) then it doesn't need to be signed by an optom, just by whoever has dispensed the specs. and although a DO needs to do the measurements (and since she's so small she needs measuring every time she has new specs) any Tom, Dick or Harry can dispense the frames, fit the frames and sign the voucher.

i would write to the branch manager, complaining about the service you've received. if you don't get a satisfory response, you can take it further, either to your local health authority or to the federation of British opticians (i think that's what they're called - i've been out of work with a baby for a year!). if you want to carry on using Specsavers, get them to put a note in your file that you only want your dd to be seen by a dispensing optician.

sorry for the long post - hth. CAT me if you need any more advice!

Thanks for the reply.

She's got an appt with the opthamolagist at the hospital in 6 weeks to get checked out. But she is shortsighted and the prescription was too weak so thankfully it sounds like there won't be any damage.

When she was at Specsavers she was seen by a fully qualified optometrist who had uni certificates on the wall and everything. He did a full eye test on her and obviously somehow ballsed the test up and thought her eyes were better than what they are. I suppose he can only go by the answers she tells him to the questions but I think its worrying that it can go so wrong.

Specsavers did something very similar to me, totally c*cked up my prescription, I'll never go there again. Vision Express otoh, were wonderful in sorting it out.

Stripeyknickers - the main part of deciding which prescription to give is done when they shine the light in your eyes. what they're doing there (apart from checking the health etc) is seeing where in relation to the retina the light is falling. the rest - the letters and so on - is pretty much fine tuning it. that's how they can do prescriptions for really tiny babies - 18months and so on.

i really would advise that you write to SS saying how unhappy you are, or at least have a chat with the branch manager.

btw - anyone who tests eyes (esp under 16's) MUST be a fully qualified optometrist. please don't ever accepy anything less.