Um?
Should laser eye surgery be available on the NHS?
- Thread starter Ricochet J
- Start date
As in it's needed, not just something to make you look better.
It's been a while since I studied optics but surely the fact that light rays incident on a glasses lens can be assumed to be parallel with the source (approximately) infinity makes chromatic aberrations pretty much negligible even in thin (high index) lenses?
Why is it needed? When millions of people happily, and healthily, wear glasses or contact lenses?
it's an alternative and probably cheaper. Not everyone gets on with contacts and glasses can be very annoying as well as hugely expensive. You can be talking £500 just for the lenses.
people with very poor eye sight. Some lenses are horrendously expensive.
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 Oct 2005
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- 8,706
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- Nottingham
Yep
I have a choice, cheaper lenses which only cost an arm and are ~0.5in thick or more expensive lenses which are significantly lighter and thinner, (although the ones I have at the moment are still ~0.25in thick at the thickest point), and cost an arm and a leg ....
But such people are (more than likely) not suitable for the procedure.
The OP is laughable tbh. In every aspect.
*n
Well yes, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be offered.There's a real use for it and none of us actually knows how much it costs. Private it's £500-1500 an eye. I bet a lot of that is profit. So the NHS could offer it like drugs and other stuff at an, at cost price.
Not necessarily my girlfriends eyesight is actually better now than it was 4 years ago when I first meet her, and she wears glasses all the time. In fact it was one of the reasons why she replaced her glasses recently, that and she saw some Red or Dead glasses that she had to have apparantly.
Right...The only people who qualify for NHS assistance with the cost for lenses are those with complicated and strong prescriptions and we should offer these people laser eye surgery as an alternative on the NHS despite these people being those who can't actually have the procedure done...
...
...Well I certainly can't argue with you logic...
:/
It is an elective, cosmetic procedure which is not suitable for everyone. Unless you can persuade the NHS that wearing glasses is making you depressed to the point where you simply cannot function unless you have the surgery (and with the caveat that you can actually have the procedure done), then why should the NHS pay for it?
Speak for yourself
The lasers themselves cost high (very high) six figure sums to purchase. They go through a lot of gas when in use (which requires a trained individual to purge and change) which is also expensive to purchase, they require maintenance contracts which aren't cheap and other consumables and sundries (such as environment-controlled rooms to operate in).
Then you have staffing to pay for:
A surgeon. They cost a lot. You pay a lot for their abilities, their experience, their skills and their personal liability insurance (to the value of several million).
Laser techs - people to run the laser. Make sure it is operating perfectly, within parameters and so forth.
Patient carers - as it says on the tin. They make sure the right patient has the right info, the right files, that they fully understand the procedure and so forth.
You need people to operate the wavescan machines, admin staff and so forth...All-in, 7-10 people.
And then you have building lease, rates, cleaning staff et cetera...It all adds up drastically.
where did I say we should only offer it to those people? perhaps you need some reading glasses. All I said was some lenses cost upwards of £500
But you still don't know how much it costs per person do you. As I said it could be offered on at costs basis on the NHS. Just like drug prescriptions and other stuff. This would not eat into the budget of the nhs.
Caporegime
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- 18 Oct 2002
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- 33,188
A lot isn't profit. AS with anything else, a MRI scan doesn't really cost £3000, they have the machine its free, the £3000 doesn't get accounted for by technicians, power and doctors consulting time, its based on the probably 1.5mil cost of the machine divided by expected use out of the machine before it breaks down to the point it can't be repaired and isn't reliable. The same goes for laser treatment. It doesn't cost £500-1500 to do, but if you want the guys doing it to have a working newish machine thats reliable, they'll be shelling out £100,000's on new equipment which can only be used a certain amount of time. They only hit profit if and when the equipment works reliably past the point it should have, but the machine might break before that time aswell.
As far as I know, as with most things, the cheapest price is advertised based on you coming in at an ungodly hour, paying for all the drops and antibiotics and after care and consultations yourself as and when needed and based on you needing the MOST basic form of laser eye surgery, so you have the lowest possible perscription and no astigmatism and anything else.
In reality you end up paying £1500 or more(some places up to 3-4k PER EYE) to get the full service package with more complex, more accurate, more up to date treatment and with things like gaurentee's for surgerys gone wrong, insurance etc etc etc. Good places, and you really should do research and you SHOULD pay £1000-3000 per eye, will do things like, if you get fairly poor vision in one eye, once its healed they will redo that eye, for FREE. The other places will give you crappy treatment resulting in awful night vision, no help after its done, and if it only half fixes your site you shell out another £500-1000 for another go. Its well worth paying a reputable, more expensive place for proper treatment.
laser surgery is in general, going to be much cheaper than glasses or contacts. Also yes, some people had it done 25 years ago, but not that many. The treatments available now aren't the ones that were being done 25 years ago, they aren't done with the same equipment and to a certain degree, you would expect early people on early trials to get incredibly detailed care with a heck of a lot of time spent getting it perfect. Where now its a slightly more rushed simple process, because its big business now, theres more chance to get screwed by a rogue outfit looking for your cash or someone who just isn't that good at it. Treatments only implemented 4-5 years ago, probably things you'd get, don't have 25 years knowledge behind them, no one knows what will happen in 10 years, though frankly the body is pretty decent at healing itself, I can't see it being a big issue.... just you never know, its definately a risk and something to be considered.
Really want it done but bit chicken to do it, not the grossness of it or anything, just scared to death of going blind. Might try one eye later this year or next year, not sure.
No, you can have one done for about £200 privatley.
I definatley think the nhs should offer laser eye treatment, it's not just a cosmetic procedure like some make out. Then again I think they should always have provided dental and optical care.
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I don't honestly think you can blanket everyone and say everyone should have eye surgery rather than wearing glasses or contacts.
I had a checkup on Wednesday last week because I'd notice my vision wasn't as good as it used to be in my right eye... I now need to wear glasses... £225!!
However I've been told that if I wear them constantly my vision will hopefully eventually correct itself within x-amount of years.
My older brother wore glasses for roughly 5-7 years and now no longer needs them.
So it really does depend on the severity of the case surely?
I had a checkup on Wednesday last week because I'd notice my vision wasn't as good as it used to be in my right eye... I now need to wear glasses... £225!!
However I've been told that if I wear them constantly my vision will hopefully eventually correct itself within x-amount of years.
My older brother wore glasses for roughly 5-7 years and now no longer needs them.
So it really does depend on the severity of the case surely?
How? Give me an example where only laser surgery can be used and not glasses or even contacts...
*n
I’ve had to ware glasses from an early age , I use contact lenses now for the past 3 years but I still ware glasses every evening & when I can.
Cost :
Contacts £300 per year (focus dallies)
Glasses £180 whenever, got them last year as I lost my old pair: P & as there is a risk of wearing contacts for too long.
I have looked at treatment but its all about getting the £600 odd for both eyes.
Cost :
Contacts £300 per year (focus dallies)
Glasses £180 whenever, got them last year as I lost my old pair: P & as there is a risk of wearing contacts for too long.
I have looked at treatment but its all about getting the £600 odd for both eyes.