UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Hi All,

I was wondering if anybody could answer this question.

I was diagnosed with Keratoconus last year and my local hospital prescribed me some RGP Lenses. These didn't sit comfortably in my eye so the optician at the time also said I should also use soft contact lenses for the RGP lenses to sit upon.

Every 6 months I need to replace the soft contact lenses and the hospital charge me £55 to do this.

I looked at the box for the soft contact lenses and looked online and I can buy them for £20.

I have queried this was the hospital and the opticians have all left (waiting on a new optician to join them) so they cant answer whether this is correct

So I have to keep paying £55 every 3 months.

I understand the NHS are subsidising the cost of the RGP lens but its costing me £55 for the RGP lens and £110 for the soft lenses per year.

The Prescription for my soft lens is BC8.6 DIA 14 and power 0.00

I just wanted to find out if this is normal before I take it up again with the hospital.

Thanks

Hi frostyh and welcome,
I suspect the answer is that hospitals vary in what they charge for what's called the piggy backing system. Strictly speaking, those of us with a clinical need for contact lenses should be charged the NHS charge of £55 per lens. But it's how you interpret that - does the fact that some people need two lenses in each eye (a soft and an rgp) mean that the charge applies to both or if the treatment is piggy backing, then should the charge just apply to one set of lenses? I believe Moorfields take the second view, and don't charge for the soft lenses but I'm sure there are other hospitals take a different view. There's a few people here who piggy back, so I hope others will give their experience.

Hi frostyh2003,

I piggyback with Biofinity soft lenses and Leicester Royal Infirmary have told me to change them monthly - they give me 3 months supply at a time. I pay the £110/year for the RGPs and they provide the softs for no additional cost.

I've only paid £55 in 15 months worth of fitting so far! But they've tried so many different types my prescription's never stayed still long enough to order a big batch lol.

One thing... power 0? What's the point in that then?

I piggyback my RGPs with daily disposable silicon hyrdogels, as they are a bandage and part of my contact lens fit, I only pay for the postage.

CrippsCorner wrote:One thing... power 0? What's the point in that then?

A zero power lens is used under an RGP as a bandage to cushion the cornea from the RGP. In my case I piggyback one lens due to intolerance issues and the other because I kept getting bubbles underneath which meant that my vision would become blurred - as if the lens needed a clean.

Here is an article about piggybacking:

http://www.optometry.co.uk/uploads/exam ... -cet_2.pdf


Lia

Oh yeah, I somehow forgot they were piggybacking halfway through reading this thread sorry!

Hi all,

Thanks for the responses. I spoke to the hospital again on Friday and because they don't have any opticians at the moment they can't comment on the charging.

Both opticians left in December and they are still looking for replacements.

I think this is confusion at the hospital end as the optician told me when I last saw him they come under the RGP prescription but they can't verify it as he's left

I think I will order the soft contact lenses myself otherwise I am paying 55 for something I could buy for 25 and i could buy a years supply at once rather than 3 months

I've probably not been paying as much attention as I ought, but I have never heard of anyone being charged separately for the soft lenses used beneath RHP's in a piggy back system.

If you do decide to get your soft lenses online your hospital should be able to provide you with the prescription to enable you to do this.

However do make sure that you get exactly the same lens as the hospital has prescribed you. There are websites that sell there ownbrands which are deemed to be equivalent to the branded varieties, and they probably are fine if you are just wearing soft lenses. Piggy backing is a complex fit and how the soft lens works with the RGP is important.

I tried three different types of soft lenses, each for three months, before the optometrists were happy with the overall fit. All three soft lenses were very slightly different but are replaced by the same lens on internet site.

Lia