I?ve today taken my 7th daughter to a local high street opticians for her eye examination after making an appointment following her complaints about having difficulty seeing the white/black board from her seat at the back of the classroom in school. We weren?t overly concerned and thought she might be playing for a change of classroom seat so thought a professional diagnosis the prudent step. The consultation resulted in her being diagnosed as short sighted, but the experience has left me feeling quite uncomfortable... And I?d like to ask if anyone could advice on my position and options?
The back ground is - on the first visit to make the appointment the optician staff we?re very very keen on the sale of spectacles pushing frames in the event glasses were needed! Today before the test could happen I had to sign a consent form, and during the examination the optician quickly arrived at a conclusion of short sightedness with healthy eyes but with a prognosis that children with short sightedness often progressively gets worse as the eye grows. We we?re then taken back into the shop area where the sales assistant forced two pairs of glasses onto my daughters face before I could blink!
I?m not convinced I got an independent appraisal / diagnosis and have suspicions the whole thing is sale orientated?
Could anyone advise ?
? Am I able to get another free/NHS child eye test as a second opinion from another opticians, or typically does the consent form rule that out acting as a type of NHS child eye claim invoice for the optician?
? Typically are parents obligated to purchase spectacles from the opticians where they received their NHS funded eye tests? I expect not but just checking, although they were very keen to hold onto the form and I didn?t get a copy of the results whilst their website doesn?t disclose policy and neither do others/NHS faq?s from what I can find?
? Are there any watchdogs or code of conduct bodies to check / report the behaviours of opticians and their practices?
Many thanks in advance