OASC Optometry Department Closed
 

Ladies and Gents

For those of you a little bit blind like me, you may like to know that the optometry department at OASC has closed. Yes I had an advantage being right on the doorstep BUT......

I had been told to get in quick by a colleague but I left it just a tad too late. So when I tried to order some new CLs today ready for flying again post Chrimbo leave it took an age to get anywhere. I did get lots of help from the medics (thanks) but I'm now in limbo.



It used to be a case of just a simple phonecall -Not any more it isn't. I now need to see a Dr to get referred to Selly in Birmingham. Of course I can't get a Drs appointment this side of Chrimbo as they are booked solid. An appointment needs to be arranged and deconflicted with work schedules then the transport has to be booked. Transport there the day before for an overnighter ready for an appointment early doors the next day followed by transport RTU. More than likely to be 1.5 to 2 days out of the office for a 20 minute appointment and all for the same prescription that has been on record at OASC for the last 3 years or so! Unfortunately my record hasn't been transferred....my fault I guess:uhoh:

What a blinder and a great admin stat.

Bamboozled yet again

SA

SA

This is another great example of joined-up thinking.......

Oh NO it isn't!!

Oh yes it is.

Oh NO it isn't!! (Well it is almost Christmas and panto season)

At least you are just up the road. Spare a thought for those a bit further away. I have been advised to write to DD Av Med at RAF High Wycombe to complain about the great :hmm: new service. I suggest that all users, of what used to be an excellent service, do likewise.

Bean counters! Cost of everything, value of nothing.:ugh:

OASC Optometry Department Closed...
 

...Must admit, I didn't see that coming......

It sounds like he now has to buy his own contact lenses.
From an optician on the high street.
Like the rest of us poor people.
I'm gutted for him.
Really. Really I am.
:hmm:

Fair's fair- the original poster needs contact lenses to do his job and the RAF subsidises this. Nobody complains about the fact that you get an allowance in your pay for buying tights, princess. It's the same thing really....

I know I'm going to get eviscerated for saying this, but:

I know lots of people who need contact lenses for their work and they obtain them by going down to Boots opticians, which takes a couple of hours and costs a modest amount of money.

It sounds to me like this is way more trouble than it's worth - like the council tenant who wouldn't buy a three foot bit of draught excluder because "it's the council's problem".

P

The RAF will only let it's Aircrew fly in lenses if they are provided through the RAF. End of.

I think some of you may be missing the point here. If you are aircrew and you wish to wear contact lenses instead of CFS in the air, you are obliged to get them from Service sources which, until recently, meant the Optometry Dept at Cranwell.

With the majority of the active airfields being within an hour or so of Cranwell, most people could get there and back quite easily. Accepted, the Scotland team have always had futher to travel. Penny Shaw also used to run an outpatient clinic at Brize for Brize/Lyneham and the SHF.

People will now have to beat their way into the centre of Birmingham having first negotiated a cumbersome Med Centre appointments system. That will all take time and will also come at a cost to your own stn budgets.

The issue is that 'efficiencies' taken by one organisation often have unintended consequences. In this case, convenience for the few appears to be being achieved through the inconvenience of the many.

..but it doesn't force you to wear contact lenses and even if it did, which is true for some applications, this is just a whinge for a whinges sake for what amounts to a tad more inconvinience. All that has happened is to align it with the other 2 services who seemed to have managed okay so.....IMHO No Big Deal! Thank your lucky stars you don't work for Woolies given the hardship some people are likely to suffer in the following weeks.

The price you pay for contact lenses through the RAF is approximately the same as you would pay for contact lenses purchased online. So, they are no cheaper just because you are in the RAF. It is not just the inconvenience that the move to Birmingham has created, it is the extra cost and time spent away from work that is now incurred. That is the issue people have with the move.

Some misinformation from a few here. :=

We DO NOT get contact lenses free! They ARE NOT subsidised by the RAF. We pay for them just like anyone else, it's just that they were sourced through the Dept of Optometry.

The Dept also did our annual eye checks; they are free, just like they are if you get your eyes tested for your flying specs. Actually there is a saving to the RAF; they do not provide as many pairs of the free specs if we choose to fly in contact lenses that we have paid for.

So Mr C H, Phil_R, any chance of a retraction of your ill informed comments?

Fortissimo - well said, but I believe that there also used to be an outpatient clinic covering the 3 main Scottish stations. So a team of one or two travelled from Cwl to Scotland for a couple of days to cover all the dozens of Scottish-based users, rather than the dozens of Scottish based users having to travel to Birmingham. Good use of T & S? No, thought not.

No, you're still bleating about nothing. If it's that big of a deal to be out of the office, why are you going on about transport?

I have to get me and a crew of two plus a big pile of television equipment from Essex to Manchester tomrrow, a fact of which I was informed only about four hours ago - and I had to find the crew. If a hopelessly uninformed civvy like me can organise that, you'd have thought you could drum up a run from Lincoln to Birmingham without too much trouble.

I mean c'mon. Is there some terrifyingly complicated administrative reason you can't just go there?

(If there is, of course, then fair enough - no, wait, not fair enough - it'll just shift the focus of my ire...)

Moreover, having just stepped into the big wide world, I can assure you - and those planning to rely on aircrew eyesight (enhanced or otherwise) - that the level of service outside (at Dollond & Aitchison in my case) does not even come close to that provided at CWL (which is actually the IATA for Cardiss would you believe :eek:). I remember Penny scanning my eyes with some very Austin Powers-type machinery....

The deal is that you must have a six-monthly C/L check in order to wear contacts in lieu of CFS. I suspect that this will now become 'optional' with the local optician being made a suitable alternative. I guess this is akin to the days when we no longer had to trog to town and then round to Rayners of Harley Street to receive those delightful CFS.

This is not an aircrew whinge (even though the lenses are slightly cheaper than outside) but, I suspect, a comment on the continual reduction in the level of service provided in the medical field. As has already been alluded to, I suspect the biggest battle will be getting an appointment with the med centre and then convinvcing the SMO that yes, you do have to go and yes, it does have to be a F1771 on his UIN (see what I did there..).

:sad:

He could always wear glasses.
Aircrew seemed to be able to fly in them for years and years.
We survived without RAF Optometry for a long time too. It all sounds like a lot of effort and cost for a few aircrew to be allowed to wear contact lenses instead of specs. It also sounds like someone is going to the far end of a fart to make an overcomplicated system just to provide lenses - civvies can do it too you know!

erm - yes it is. It doesn't impact upon anyone else - except the poor Driver who has to take you to Brimingham. :rolleyes:

The optometry dept at Cranwell not only prescribed Aircrew Spectacles for the older aircrew amongst us - they also gave youe eye a full MOT. I was diagnosed with a very rare and obscure condition during one of these visits, and thanks to them I have regular treatment (at Selly Oak) to preserve my eyesight and my flying cat!

As with self drive to Selly Oak - you can always self drive MT unless you are receiving eye drops which means that you cannot drive after treatment. It takes about 2 hours to drive to Selly Oak from a big base near Lincoln - no real hardship so overnight is taking the p**s somewhat.

That said, I will miss the excellent service that I received at Cranwell - the passing of the optometrist department will be mourned!

Oh my God, 90 miles each way for an appointment. Welcome to the real world, sunshine.

FWIW my last out-of-office meeting (last week) was in Manchester. I left home at 0500, in loads of time for my 0930 appointment, despite the M6. 90 mins in the meeting, and then back here at 1315.

Mr C
 

Quote:

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'He could always wear glasses'

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Yes I could and I probably will. However, there are perfectly good reasons why I have prescribed lenses. The new system just makes it that bit more difficult to get them 'legally'. A 2-minute phonecall had it all sorted previously and at no additional cost to anyone but myself.

Ah the COST - Yes I do pay for the lenses too and at a rate comparable to civvie street. For those that say the high street is the option. Yes, it would be if we were cleared to use the same lenses. I was very surprised when my RAF prescribed lenses were from the same manufacturer as the ones I had to stop using from Specsavers because they were not cleared for flying? The RAF ones cost a little bit more too.

Finally, can I ask where you read in my first post that I asked for a driver? I'm more than able to drive myself my dear chap. You assume too much with knowing very little and we all know what assumption does. What I said was Nothing in there that requires a driver to my understanding.

SA

Well I for one am not going to complain about the change. And that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I'm based somewhat further north than lincolnshire, (far enough to require an overnight trip, for all you "ooh get up at 5am and be back in time for lunch" heroes!) and my better half works at selly oak... shame that;)! Now can anyone remember what the "private arrangements" accommodation allowance is at the moment;)?

You assume I'm referring to you as opposed to the wider aircrew community - and the quote I was replying to wasn't one of yours. Keep your assumptions as I don't want them. Being a loggie, I'm thinking of the implications of this situation on those not blessed to be aircrew and how they have to pick up the additional tasks. Someone runs the stuff that happens outside your cockpit/crewroom/bubble and applies the 'so what' to keep stuff happening.