Prospective patients often ask us why there is such a large difference between prices at one clinic to another. A clinic’s advertised fees will reflect:

• A different standard of care
• A Reliance on up selling
• The clinic’s investments in technology (older or more up-to-date equipment)
• The clinic’s investments in people (low staff costs versus higher staff costs)
• The range of prescription a surgeon will correct
• Whether the price includes treatment only; or screening, treatment, aftercare, and medications
• Whether the price includes a one-time treatment or all enhancements

At London Vision Clinic, we do not up sell our patients.

• We clearly outline our fees up front so there are no surprises.
• We do not charge additional fees for assessments, wavefront treatments, post-operative supplies or medications, enhancements, standard or extraordinary aftercare appointments.

We invest in best of breed technology

When investing in technology, we have elected the “best of breed” for every category of equipment, from corneal topography to our laser platform. We have even made considerable investments in designing and building our own technologies that are not available anywhere else in the UK (i.e. Artemis).

We invest in our staff

Not only does our employee to patient ratio exceed the norm for this industry, we also invest in our staff through high wages and benefits to enhance loyalty and commit to ongoing training and development in both technical and interpersonal areas. We have even invented staff positions that would be unheard of in a clinic our size, such as our full time research manager, Tim Archer MA(Oxon) DipCompSci(Cantab). Tim has a MA in Mathematics from Oxford and a Diploma in Computer Science from Cambridge.

We include everything you need in one “no-surprises” fee

Fees among clinics vary considerably, but it is important to ensure that you are comparing apples to applies, as many offers that sound too good to be true often are.

• At London Vision Clinic, initial screenings are complimentary, whereas many clinics will charge a fee to determine your suitability.
• Here, you know which surgeon will be treating you from the outset, as opposed to finding out on the day of surgery.
• We do not engage in “up-selling” like many high street clinics. Approximately 90% of our patients pay our standard, all inclusive fee of £4,600. However, about 10% of the patients that visit us do have very high prescriptions. For these patients, we do charge an additional fee and we can discuss this with you in detail over the phone or at the time of your initial screening.
• Every patient gets a wavefront analysis and guided-treatment if they need it, because we do not believe anyone should get less than an optimum treatment, even if a clinic offers it at a discount.
• Our patients get “24/7″ access to their laser eye surgeon’s mobile phone after surgery, complimentary enhancements, flexible aftercare appointments, and unlimited access to required medication and eye drops.

Results differ considerably among laser eye surgery clinics in the UK. For example, we took our results and compared them with published results of one of the most well known high street chains in the UK. This is what we found:

Among short-sighted patients up to -3D, 88.5% of the high street chain’s patients achieved 20/20 or better, whilst 97% of our short-sighted patients up to -3D achieved 20/20 or better.

The higher the prescriptions, the greater the differences. Among short-sighted patients between -3D, 84.1% of the high street chain’s patients achieved 20/20 or better, whilst 99% of our patients achieved 20/20 or better. At prescriptions over -6D, the 76.6% of the high street patients achieved 20/20, whilst 96% of our patients achieved 20/20.

For long-sighted patients, the differences are even greater. Among long-sighted patients up to +3D, 75% of the high street patients achieved 20/20 or better, whilst 93% of our patients up to +4 achieved 20/20 or better. At prescriptions over +3D, 58.8% of the high street patients achieved 20/20, whilst 88% of our patients ranging from +4D to +6D achieved 20/20 or better.

Overall, 83.8% of the high street patients across all prescriptions achieved 20/20 or better, whilst at London Vision Clinic, 90% of long-sighted patients, and 97% of short-sighted patients achieved 20/20 or better.

Ideally, you want the best surgeon operating with the best equipment combined with the most stringent protocols. Professor Reinstein and Mr Carp personify these criteria. If you must make a choice, then always choose the surgeon before the technology.

Laser eye surgery uses a number of specialist devices in order to:

• Screen patients to see if surgery is appropriate (suitability)
• Make a pre-operative assessment
• Provide treatment
• Provide post-operative care

Most laser eye surgeons use five technologies. These are:

• Topography
• Pachymetry
• Pupillometry
• Wavefront aberrometry
• Excimer lasers