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THE ONLY OPTOMETRY centre in Ireland offering free screening of children has closed its waiting lists for the service because of increased demand and limited services.
The clinic, which trains students of the profession as well as operating services for patients, treats patients for refractive errors (eg long-sightedness, short-sightedness) and lazy eye, and would see about 14 patients a day in its clinic.
Declan Hovenden, Head Optometrist and Clinic Manager of the National Optometry Centre in DIT Kevin’s Street, said that the waiting list would be closed ”for the forseeable future”.
Although it’s keeping its waiting lists open for paid appointments, the demand for free appointments for children aged 2 years and older increased to a point where they had to close their waiting lists at least 6 months ago to focus on the patients they had.
“There are other departments in the public health system where people can go, but waiting lists there are up to four years.”
Optometry involves various follow on sessions, especially for children – this would involve an appointment every 3-6 months for a couple of years for children.
Hovenden said that it is vital for children to receive an eye-screening before the age of six or seven.
If the child has the problem, early intervention is key. If the child isn’t seen early on, the prognosis is much lower, and in some cases the opportunity to rectify the problem is lost completely.
“With the list being closed, there will be children whose problems are going untreated and who will end up with a lifelong problem.”
Hovenden said that most of the people who avail of the service are those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and depriving them of the right treatment seriously affects their social development and learning.
“If children are misdiagnosed or un-diagnosed, studies have shown that it impacts on their performance at school, and their social development. This is something that can be avoided with a fairly straightforward solution.”
Hovenden said that the Government should look to add this extra measure, particularly as early intervention is so important.
“This budget announced that any adult with a medical card has access to a free eye-screening – but children aren’t afforded the same free assessment.”
“There are a cohort of opticians around the country who are trained and are capable to see patients,” he says, but adds it’s not affordable for most parents.
“We need this state-funded eye-care for all children, instead of waiting them to be referred to us through the school system.”
Around 30% of children in Ireland are diagnosed with an eye condition such as myopia or refractive vision. Hovenden argues that all children should be screened for eye conditions once they begin school.
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You could say…they cleaned up.
(Badumm-tishhh)
I don’t get it
That is the best idea ever
You had 32 million reasons to think it up.
Why didn’t I think of that.
Immense amount of hard work from Jules and the rest of the founding team to make this happen. This company nearly folded not so long ago and they had to re-name, re-brand and re-focus to become a success. Anyone can have a great idea but the dedication and brains to make it work don’t often mix. Fair play and here’s to continued success!
Fair play to her
could have used something like this back in my “free gaf” days.
oh well, twas’ my parent’s loss really.
great advert…. I use handy for my cleaners. It’s very hit and miss whether you get a good one though
Clean up after yourself so.
If you hire a cleaner for 4 hours, they charge you 48 €. However they keep 8€ (for the credit card processing, and usage of the site), the cleaner only gets 40€ and as they are contractors they have to take care of the taxing etc.
Good business model for them, not so good for their cleaners.
So they should do it for free?
The contractors don’t have to use the website if they don’t want to.
Not free, but they charge 16.66% fee for essentially a billing and scheduling solution. Not even Hailo has that big of a fee (12.5%).
If you feel comfortable to have someone cleaning your house for less than a living wage, that is fine by me, but I intent to pay people a fair wage for their work. You might think different and contribute to the ever spiraling way down of wages.
Why not charge an amount that allows the cleaners a living wage for what is essentially hard work?
That can be done by either charging a reasonable fee or charging a higher amount per hour.
But it’s the business model they have and obviously the founders put a lot of work into it to make it a brand that helping thinks can benefit them and value as this price.
i do see your point Yggr , but the ever spirralling increases during the boom became unsustainable and some services became a complete joke , there were young lads sniffing coke on the nitelinks from the back of mobile phones braggin about how much cash they were pulling in as laborers on buiding sites in dublin – there are more sides to the story than trying to imply guilt for me not paying a ‘living wage to cleaners’ – have you thought that if the service was too expensive the numbers using it would drop so much it would just not succedd and there would be no business and fewer jobs – technology is opening up possibilities for new models for almost every sector , fair play to these people who managed to create a success in the cleaning sector – unsurprisingly there is the ususal irish begruggery doin the rounds no matter what you do. Addressing issues like the minimum wage and other social issues are a mtter for government policy to address not people who want to try create a successful business.
10.6 million each. Take the leftover 200,000 and put it all on red!
Do we have anything like this in Ireland though?
I mean all Ireland and not just Dublin like Hassle.
It rolls out gradually, there have been huge roadblocks and hills to overcome to just get it to Dublin. Hailo is actually a much lighter model that doesn’t vet or examine their drivers I’m sure.
My colleagues and I launched upChore a few months ago. We are in Dublin, launching in Waterford next week and expect to be in Belfast by January.
have your say