Optomap Retinal Imaging Days

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Oliver Peoples

July 11, 2018

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We now stock Oliver Peoples

Now available at the practice! Oliver Peoples, for men and women. Drop into the practice at the arcade on Liverpool Street, or contact us to make a time to view the Oliver Peoples collection. http://www.eye-contact.co.uk/contact-us/

Diabetes week 11 – 17 June

June 12, 2018

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Latest Retinal Imaging technology, Optomap Ultrawidefield Image of Retina showing signs of Diabetic Retinopathy.

As its Diabetes week this week, we wanted to promote awareness of Diabetic Retinopathy. Here is some info from NHS England on the eye related complications that can arise from diabetes, and why eye testing is free for diabetic patients.

Diabetic retinopathy is a complication of diabetes, caused by high blood sugar levels damaging the back of the eye (retina). It can cause blindness if left undiagnosed and untreated.

However, it usually takes several years for diabetic retinopathy to reach a stage where it could threaten your sight.

To minimise the risk of this happening, people with diabetes should:

ensure they control their blood sugar levels, blood pressure and cholesterol
attend diabetic eye screening appointments – annual screening is offered to all people with diabetes aged 12 and over to pick up and treat any problems early on

Reduce your risk of diabetic retinopathy

You can reduce your risk of developing diabetic retinopathy, or help prevent it getting worse, by:

controlling your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels
taking your diabetes medication as prescribed
attending all your screening appointments
getting medical advice quickly if you notice any changes to your vision
maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy balanced direct, exercising regularly, and not smoking.

For more information on Diabetic Retinopathy and clinical care at Eye Contact

For more information you can contact us to arrange an eye exam http://www.eye-contact.co.uk/contact-us/ and also learn about Optomap Ultrawidefield Retinal Imaging, which can detect general as well as eye diseases, such as Diabetic Retinopathy often years in advance of other methods http://www.eye-contact.co.uk/retinal-imaging/

Glasses Style Guide

June 8, 2018

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Choosing the right frames

So you’ve done the hard bit, you have your clinical recommendation but how to make the most of style opportunity of wearing spectacles? Spectacles are one of the first things noticed about you so its important to make the right impression, at work or socially. Below is a brief guide compiled by our in store experts:

Frames MUST LIFT: Specs look best when they lift the cheek and eye area at the bottom outside corners of the frames upwards.
Your eyes should be centered within the frames: They don’t need to be absolutely dead center, but thereabouts is good.
Match the scale of the frames with your facial proportions: Bold, oversized frames are dramatic and fabulous, but that doesn’t mean they will work for you. A small person with dainty facial features is overwhelmed in thick, chunky frames. But that person can still wear bold frames if they choose a refined version of a chunky style.
Follow the line of your brows: Choose a frame shape that mirrors the arch of your eyebrows.
Don’t be scared of extra width: Many people wear specs that are too narrow for their face. Their eyes may be centered and the style “lifts upwards”, but the narrow width of the frames constricts the face. You want a shape that “opens up” the face, so add a little width to the top outside corners of the frames. It makes a world of difference, often balancing out a pear shaped face.
Think in three dimensions: You see your frames from the front, but everyone else sees them from all angles. They also catch glimpses of the inside of the frame. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to temple and inside colour detailing.
Choose a color that complements your skin tone and eye colour: The operative word is “complement”, not “match”. Bright blue-eyed people shouldn’t wear bright blue specs. But wearing brown specs with blue detailing might be ideal. Do not confine your choice to neutral tones either. Eyewear does not have to match what you’re wearing, but rather go with everything because it compliments your face, not your clothes.
Create the right amount of contrast: If the contrast between the colour of your skin tone and the frames is too strong, you’ll look severe. If it’s not strong enough you’ll look blah. This is not a hard and fast rule, but generally, choose a colour that is different to the colour of your hair and eyes.

‘Worlds best optician…’ – recent feedback

June 1, 2018

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As part of our commitment to continuous improvement of the service we provide to our patients, we ask recent visitors on a two question survey, on a scale of 1 – 10 whether they would recommend us to a friend and why they chose the number which they did. These are the most recent comments from patients who visited us in the first few months of 2018:

“The service and expertise at Eye Contact is night and day compared to the high street branches advertising on TV”

“Swift and professional service”

“Because the service is good”

“The level of service is excellent and the drive to obtain an accurate prescription is what brings me back”

“Worlds best optician”.

For more information about services we provide to patients, please visit http://www.eye-contact.co.uk/, or if you would like to leave us feedback please visit our google plus page https://plus.google.com/+EyeContactLondon

Our privacy policy for patients of Eye Contact Opticians

May 29, 2018

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Data Protection and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

How we look after and safeguard information about you

The team at Eye Contact Opticians aim to provide you with the highest quality of healthcare. To do this we need to keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you. We know that you value your privacy and the security of personal information held about you.

Our legal bases for processing personal data for healthcare purposes, including appointment reminders, include public task or legitimate interests. When we provide services under the NHS General Optical Services contract (such as a sight test funded by the NHS), our legal basis for processing personal data in respect of that service is public task, otherwise our legal basis is legitimate interests. Our condition for processing special category data is the provision of health or social care.

We may process our patients’ personal data for marketing purposes with their consent or to meet a legitimate interest. This enables us to tell you about eye care products and services that may be relevant to you. If you do not want us to process your personal data for marketing purposes, please let us know and we will stop.

Information recorded

Information recorded may include:

Basic details about you, such as address, date of birth, next of kin;
details of your spectacle or contact lens prescription;
details of glasses or contact lenses supplied to you;
other details and notes about your health and medical treatment;
records of medicines you have been prescribed by your doctor;
information relevant to your continued care from other people who care for you and know you well, such as other health professionals and relatives.

We may store either through our patient management system and/or your written record any email correspondence received either via email or via our contact us page on http://www.eye-contact.co.uk/contact-us/. Subject to the terms set out below.

We may also store clinical imaging of your eyes, including images of your retina, corneal topography and visual field plots.

As part of providing a professional, safe and efficient service, there is certain information that we record. This includes details about your ocular health, your general health, advice given and referrals made to other health professionals. This information won’t be shared with anyone else except under the circumstances described below in ‘Sharing Information’.

Sharing Information

The information held about you will not be shared for any reason, unless:

You ask us to do so;
We ask and you give us specific permission;
We are permitted by law, for example where public interest overrides the need to keep the information confidential.

The types of people we may ask you for permission to share information with include your doctors (GP and hospital) and other health professionals.

Anyone who receives information from us also has a legal duty to keep this information confidential, subject to recognised exceptions of the types listed above. Important Notice

Following an eye examination (or on completion of a contact lens fitting) patients will be given a copy of their prescription (specification). Copies of both the above documents can be issued for a small charge but for the safeguard of our patients the following should be noted:

• The document will need to be signed by the prescribing optician. He or she may be available on the same day, but the signature may be delayed until the optician is next in the practice.

• Details will not be given out over the phone, this is for both security and the elimination of transcription errors.

• Under no circumstances will patient details be given out to a 3rd party unless under strict written authorization of the patient concerned.

Contact Us via Our Website or email

In order to contact us via our website ‘Contact Us Page’ you must Opt In and accept that the information you provide to us is input by you as a data inputter , and that you are responsible for the data provided and accuracy of that data. Information received by the contact us page and responses back to you via email from us will form part of your health record with us, as such this will be stored on our patient management system and/or your written record.

Responses to email/contact us forms off our website will be subject to our sharing of information policy set out above.

Your Rights

You have the right to confidentiality under the GDPR, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the common law duty of confidence (the Disability Discrimination and the Race Relations Acts may also apply). We also comply with the NHS Code of Practice on Confidentiality and optical practices have a requirement under their professional Code of Ethics to keep records about you confidential, secure and accurate.

All of our staff contracts of employment contain a requirement to keep patient information confidential.

Our guiding principle is that we hold your records in strict confidence.

Your right to view your health record

You have the right to ask for a copy of all our records about you.

You will need to give adequate information in order for optical staff to identify you (for example, full name, address and date of birth).

If you think any information we hold on you is inaccurate or incorrect, please let us know.

Our general data protection policy is set out below;

All personal data will be relevant and lawfully collected

Data shall only be held and used for lawful purposes

Data held on a specific patient will not be disclosed unless under written permission from the said patient

Every effort will be made to ensure data is accurate and up to date

An individual shall be entitled:

• at reasonable intervals and without undue delay or expense to be informed by any Data User whether he holds personal data of which that individual is the subject

• to have access to any such data held by a Data user; and where appropriate, to have such data corrected or erased.

REQUEST FOR ACCESS TO DATA

Where we have already provided the information and you require a duplicate (such as a duplicate copy of your prescription) a fee of £5 may be payable in advance.

A request for access to personal data must be made in writing subject to any applicable exemption. A copy of information held both on manual record and computer will be provided, we do not charge for this unless it is a duplicate of information already provided. We are required to respond to your request within 30 days

DATA PROTECTION OFFICER

Arif Karim, arif@eye-contact.co.uk

Up to 50% off All Sunglasses

May 9, 2018

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All brands. From designer to sport, Rayban to Serengeti. Visit the practice for up to 50% off sunglasses. Ends soon. Ts&cs apply.

Christmas at Eye Contact

December 15, 2017

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Its Christmaaaaassss!!! Yes, it’s that time of year, again.

While there isn’t much inherently festive about market leading clinical care, brilliant product ranges, and the biggest and best contact lens practice in the city, we’ve done our best at Eye Contact (as you can see!)

A time ‘for-giving and a time for-getting’ as Cliff will tell you, but really its very important to remember a healthy eye care routine in the new year if you’ve missed your appointment this year.

We’ll be with you in the new year with brilliant offers to make looking after your eyes as pleasurable as possible. Some things to bear in mind over the Christmas period:

We close our doors for the Christmas period from 5pm, 22 December and re-open 9am, 2 January.
If you need to order contact lenses, the latest date to order for delivery to the practice is 18th December.

Other than that it remains to say, have a great Christmas and New Year! Thanks a lot for your support and we look forward to welcoming you in the the New Year. The Eye Contact Team, Arif, Kalpesh, Shaheena, James.