UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

I have just been formally diagnosed with Advanced KC. I did get checked for KC at the hospital about three yeasrs ago and was told that I 'might' have it. Since then my optician has been unsure whether I actually had it or not. Finally my GP referred me back to the hosiptal and they now say that I have advanced KC in both eyes, and I am too far gone for crosslinking and my corneas are too thin to consider intacks.

i was told my only option is surgery if I can not tolerate contacts any more. The NHS hospital gave me the contact Lens perscription and said I could use it at my own optians (private). They gave me the impression that the prescription would cover the cost of contact lens.

When I went for my appt at the optians they said the NHS prescription would only cover about 1/3 of the cost! Buying them would cost me an extre cost of about £200 and if on a monthly plan the prescription would only cover the first four months of a monthly payment plan.

has anyone here been given a NHS presciption for contacts? and I was wondering is it standard for the NHS to cover only up to about £150 of the cost.

Contacts for KC seem so very expensive!! How to people manage to cover the costs?

Kind Regards
R Harvey

Welcome to the forum

I am puzzled and perplexed by your post. It reads as if your hospital has a contact lens clinic but sent you to the private sector to source your lenses. Is that right?

I know that the situation varies from place to place, and between the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, and I had thought the rest of the United Kingdom, the standard NHS fee for a contact lens is something like £52.50 and this also covers necessary replacements within a twelve month period. (it does not cover lost lenses)

it may be that your hospital was not able to dispense a specialist lens?

The straightforward answer is that I have never heard of the situation you describe, and am struggling a bit to make sense of it.

Maybe there will be somebody along in a moment who can explain. To make that more likely, I have moved your post to the General Discussion Forum.

Andrew

My (local) hospital out-sources CL fitting for KC (north west england). In the past i have had to pay the £50 odd pounds PER EYE (i actually got two lenses per eye for that, though i understand that this varies area to area) per year. On top of that i also pay into a saver scheme to cover the cost of my solutions, annual eye check ups and towards any new glasses/prescriptions i would need.

If contact lenses are prescribed by an NHS eye clinic, then the NHS charge of around £52 per eye is the maximum you should be charged for lenses. Hospitals that have their own contact lens department will provide the lenses themselves for that charge (which, as Andrew says, covers any changes in prescription in a 12 month period). Hospitals that don't have a contact lens department 'contract out' the provision of KC lenses to an optician's practice in the area and should give a voucher (called HESp) to go with the prescription which again means that the NHS charge applies. I can only think that the optician you went to is not the one with the contract for the hospital. Do query this with the hospital concerned. You should not be paying £200 for lenses prescribed on the NHS.
All the best
Anne

Many thanks for the replies.

I called the hospital today to query the prescription.

The hospital does not dispense contact lens. Therefore the prescription was given to me to take to my private optician. The 'value' of the presciption is £50 per lens.

My private optician charges either £50 per month (not including solutions) on a monthly plan OR £300 per year for 2 pairs of lenses. Therefore the prescription value will only cover one-third of the cost. These costs are for the So2clear lens.

I have been wearing glasses for the last 12 months because I used to pay £40 per month for contacts on a monthly plan; which became very expensive. So the thought of now having to pay £50+ per month seems extremely expensive since being diagnosed with KC.

I would be interested to hear what other people pay.

BTW I live in East Anglia/East Midlands area.

Cheers

The more I hear about how the 'contracted out' provision of contact lenses works in practice, the more confused I become. I get my lenses from a hospital eye clinic, so the maximum I pay is around £100 in any year. The way I understood the regulations, I thought that same maximum charge applied when the prescription was taken to the community optometrist used by the hospital for contracted out services (though that doesn't include solutions and I'm aware there are other charges some optoms seem to add on). But you also seem to be saying in your post that the optician is providing you with two sets of lenses rather than one set? Which would account for at least some of the additional cost. I would be interested in any light the optoms who post here can shed on this. It's also true that So2clears are more expensive than ordinary corneal rgp lenses. But those of us who get our lenses from a hospital contact lens dept pay the NHS rate whatever the type of lens.
One alternative for you would be to ask your GP to refer you to a hospital that does have a contact lens clinic. Given where you live, would Leicester Royal Infirmary be practical for you to get to?
Anne

Thank you Anne for your reply.

Leicester is a bit far, but if it will save me a bundle it would be an option.

To correct myself, my private optician charges £50 per month for the So2clear lens on a monthly plan, this would give me 2 pairs per year. Or to pay for them outright it is £300 per pair or £600 for two pairs to last for a year!!! He said the So2clear lens are the best option for me since my corneas are very thin now.

SO2Clear are available on the NHS, so you ought to be paying no more than £52.50 per eye per year.

Andrew

Thank you Andrew for the info. That is a massive difference in pricing between NHS and private!

Should I be pushing my GP (who referred me the eye clinic at the hospital for diagnosis) for referral to another hospital that dispenses the lens. Or do I need to go back to the hospital clinic that gave me the prescription and push them to send me to an NHS clinic that can provide contacts.


Thankyou

Actually there should be no need to go back through your GP; all you need to do is tell your present hospital clinic that you want a referral to another that may have more people with keratoconus.

They won't mind, and will be able to set up your referral far more quickly than your GP could.

All the best

Andrew