How do I choose the best laser eye surgery in Yorkshire?

I think this is a really difficult one for patients. There’s such a wealth of information on the Internet. Every clinic claims to have the best technology, the best surgeons and the best outcomes. The truth is, modern laser eye surgery is very good, and it is true that all clinics are delivering good care and achieving good outcomes.

The only clinic in this region, however, that has the ability to offer PRESBYOND blended vision laser eye surgery to provide distance through to near and the only clinic that has the ability to offer SMILE Keyhole Laser Eye Surgery is St. James Laser Vision at St. James University Hospital in Leeds. This is the laser clinic and the laser platform that I can access as a Consultant there, as the Medical Director of that service and as the Director of Custom Vision Clinic with our relationship with St. James Hospital.

By having access to all those tools with the most accurate laser platform, (I’m sounding like the internet with everybody saying they’re the best, but I’m going to it back up), the reason the ZEISS Vision Max is the most accurate laser for flap creation, is the same reason that it is the only one that it can perform SMILE. To perform SMILE Keyhole Laser Eye Surgery, you have to have submicron accuracy. You have to be able to make a lens within the cornea that accurately. But of course, what that means is that it is safer than any other laser and more accurate creating the flap. So there’s a perception out there it’s only for performing SMILE but no, it isn’t. It’s amazing at doing the safest job possible of creating a LASIK flap for you. So if you’re having a laser eye surgery, you can tick that off. You know the most important surgical step is being performed with the most accurate and safe piece of technology available to do that job.

Then it’s about the care. It’s about how well you’ve been assessed and how well you’ve followed up. All clinics say that they take care of you, but in our clinic, you are evaluated by my team and me, but I draw out the surgical plan, perform the surgery and all my patients have my personal mobile phone number. So you can imagine how highly motivated I am to do an incredibly good job because I have a family and I like to have downtime. But what is the most important to me is that if my patients are aware that they can access me by just dialling the number. It’s always on. I can listen to what they’re going through, and I just reassure them that it’s absolutely fine but if I am worried as well, I can be at one of my hospitals in twenty minutes, sorting out whatever issue there is. Although the surgery is very safe and efficient, there are problems. If you do enough surgery, some issues can need sorting out to achieve an excellent outcome for patients. Providing you sort them out, you will achieve an excellent outcome but providing that care is critical to getting those great outcomes consistently.

Then it’s about continuity of care. If you have an issue further down the line from the surgery, and you’re talking to the fifth optometrist that you’ve met on that journey, and you have to explain where you started from and then what happened at the surgery and what happened to visit two and three because the records don’t quite add up and they didn’t make a note of what you said, you can imagine that the quality of care may be compromised. So what you are after is a clinic with the safest and the most accurate lasers with really careful assessment, ready and rapid access to the surgeons performing the surgery and great continuity of care. Then you’ve done everything you can to give yourself the best possible chance of a great outcome.