Everything you need to know about your private treatment with us.

We’re proud to be recognised by the main private medical insurance companies. So if you have private medical insurance, just speak to your provider to check if you have adequate cover and that your eye condition is covered. It’s also important to check if you have an excess on your policy, an annual outpatient charge limit or outpatient cover regardless of admission to hospital.

We’re accredited with the following companies:

• Aviva
• Allianz
• AXA PPP
• Bupa
• Cigna
• The Exeter
• Exeter Family
• General Medica
• Healix
• National & Friendly
• Perm Health
• SAGA
• Vitality
• WPA

You don’t need a referral from your GP of optician if you’re a private patient. You can contact us directly to book a consultation. If you’re using insurance, you might need to get some more information from your GP or optician before you start treatment. Find out more here.

Although this can vary from clinic to clinic, we aim to get you in for your treatment a couple of weeks either after we receive your referral, or after your first consultation with us.

This will depend on the type of treatment you’re having with us and in which of our clinics. Private patients generally won’t have to wait much longer than a couple of weeks for their surgery.

All our patients are treated with the same care and attention throughout their time with us, but private patients will be able to be benefit from more flexible appointment times, as well as more options for their treatment types. That includes a range of lens choices for cataract surgery that can better suit your lifestyle. We’ll help you to find the right option for you.

With NHS cataract surgery, the standard replacement used is called a monofocal lens, which improves your vision for a specific distance (like up close or far away).

With private surgery you can still have a monofocal lens replacement, but you also have the option to choose a different type of lens which could reduce your dependency on glasses after your surgery (at an additional cost). This includes:

• Monofocal – these lenses have a single focus point. That means they improve your vision for a specific distance, either up close or far away, but not both at the same time. If you choose this type of lens and you wear glasses now, you’ll most likely still need a pair of glasses to help your vision. For example, if your monofocal lens implant is for distance vision, you may need glasses every now and again for reading.

You can also still wear varifocal glasses with a monofocal lens. Please note that if you have astigmatism (see below) then you may still need glasses for all distances with a monofocal lens.

• Multifocal – these lenses have more than one point of focus. The most common ones are called trifocals which have one part of the lens that helps with your distance vision, another part to help with intermediate vision (around 1 metre) and another part that helps with your close-up vision. There is also a possibility that you may have some visual effects with these lenses such as rings or circles (halos) around lights at night.

• Extended focus – these lenses work by providing a continuous focus over a range of distances. So as well as your distance vision improving, you’ll also notice some improvements in your mid-range vision (things at arm’s length). Many people can read comfortably without glasses, but they might still need to use them for small print.

If you have astigmatism (where the cornea at the front of the eye is shaped more like a rugby ball than a football), you can get the right correction incorporated into any of these specialist lenses. This type of corrective lens is known as toric, which you might have heard of before if you wear contact lenses.

Your surgeon will talk through all your options for you to think about before having surgery.

This will depend on the type of treatment you’re having. But no matter what condition you’re having treated, we’re here to look after you until you’re totally satisfied with your vision. Normally, we’ll give you a call around 24 hours after your treatment to ask how you’re doing. You can come back to us as many times as you need after your surgery (it’s all covered in your treatment). Then the rest of your aftercare is designed completely around you, including a post-operative follow-up with your consultant and a further follow-up appointment with your preferred optician. Your consultant will discuss it all with you after your treatment.