Low vision clinic near Ealing, Harrow & Wembley. Visual impairment and low vision affects a growing number of people in the community. This is partly due to an aging population and so low vision service are under increasing burden to provide low vision services in the hospital eye service.
If you live in and around Ealing, Harrow & Wembley you will be near Ealing and Northwick Park hospitals where branches of Moorfields Eye Hospital exist that provide low vision services. There is often a wait to be seen within their departments.
So what is low vision and visual impairment?
In the UK there are about 360,000 people who are registered sight impaired (previously called “partially sighted”) and severely sight impaired (previously known as “blind”). This involved voluntarily registering depending on the severity of your sight loss. The thresholds of severity depend on your vision level measured from the testing chart and your field of vision.
The assessment that leads to registration is done by an Ophthalmologist in a hospital eye department in combination with data collected by support staff including Optometrists. If you are certified as either sight impaired or severely sight impaired, a certificate called the Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI) will be issued to you along with copies being sent to your GP and your local social services.
Your local social services will contact you and give you the option of being added to a register of visually impaired people. You will also receive access to an assessment in your home by for example an occupational therapist. There are a number of further benefits you may receive and may include:
- Disability living allowance or Personal Independance Payment
- Reduced TV licence fees
- Reduced public transport fares
- Parking concessions
Regardless of whether you are certified as sight impaired, you can be given low vision assessments in the hospital eye service.
Low Vision assessments or Eye examination
Unlike an eye examination which is a general check of the state of your eyes, a low vision assessment is a specialised test dealing more specifically with the visual impairment. Not all Opticians are able to provide this service as not all Optometrists are trained in providing these assessments. At Oldfields Opticians for example the Optometrist, Salman Siddiqui is able to provide low vision assessments as he works at Moorfields Eye Hospital in the refraction and low vision department at City Road.
A low vision assessment provides in addition to a standard refraction the measurments to determine the optimum strength of low vison aids that would be most useful for you. Bear in mind that your vision may continue to change and so the assessment is not just a one off but needs to be re-assessed periodically.
Low vision clinic near Ealing, Harrow & Wembley
Oldfields Opticians is nestled between Ealing to the south, Harrow to the north and Wembley to the east making it easily accessible for patients from all three areas. That coupled with free parking means that your visit can be hassle free.
