Meet Your Peers: Mark Drewett

This month OcuPlan optician practice, David Arthur Opticians in Lichfield reached an impressive landmark. They onboarded their 50th OcuPlan patient.

David Arthur have been part of OcuPlan for about two and a half years and have build fantastic relationships with the local consultants and have really embraced OcuPlan as a service that benefits their practice and their patients.

To mark the occasion, we interviewed Mark Drewett, practice partner at David Arthur Opticians.

Hi Mark, Can you tell us about you, and your practice?

My name is Mark Drewett, I’ve been a qualified Optometrist for 27 years, and currently I’m a practice partner at David Arthur Opticians in Lichfield. We are an independent optometry practice serving Lichfield and the local area, we were established by my predecessor David Arthur in 1969. My business partner, and qualified Dispensing Optician, is Morgan Arthur, David’s son.

As we’ve been in the city a long time, we have a unique continuity of care, some of our patients have been coming since before I was born, but we also attract many new patients, mainly through word of mouth. We aim to offer individual eye care to individuals, and have a variety of modern technologies that allow us to do that. Personal service is definitely our priority!

You've recently reached 50 OcuPlan patients, congratulations! Can you tell us how OcuPlan is helping your practice?

About two years ago we were approached by our local consultant ophthalmologist Mr Calladine to take part in Ocuplan, and we’ve just onboarded our 50th Ocuplan patient! We have many patients who are suspect or actual glaucoma cases, and having the facility to offer Ocuplan to those patients is fantastic.

Patients love the fact that they can come to their own practice for OCT and field screening, and it also attracts patients who come from other practices too. It’s a great added service to offer, making good use of our equipment, and gives us a direct link to the consultants. It’s an easy way to share information, and communication from the consultants is excellent, we actually get reports sent back to us regularly which helps us to remain informed on our patients.

Can you tell us about how OcuPlan is helping your patients?

Yes absolutely. Especially since Covid, its not unusual for patients to express concern at the sporadic nature of NHS monitoring, and OcuPlan gives patients a middle ground between NHS and private eyecare, one that gives them a degree of control over their own ocular health.

They benefit from the local services provided in practice, and from a guaranteed appointment with a consultant, who has the time to offer a personal service. This benefits patients as they are freed from long waiting lists and appointments on the never never, and it’s considerably more economical than normal private medical care.

In short, it takes the worry out of long term monitoring. If, during OcuPlan screening, we detect other eye conditions, these can also be flagged up to the consultants when submitting results, and this offers another referral route too.

You have a very busy practice and need to be efficient, does the OcuPlan Dashboard help with that?

Yes definitely, the system makes it really quick and easy for us to upload data to be sent to the consultants. With a little training we’ve all learned how to use it, and we are generally computer dunces, so it really is easy!

Scans are easily uploaded using a drag and drop system and comments or concerns can be added. Invoicing is automatic and is all readily available to view from the dashboard itself.

Do you have any advice to practices who may be considering joining OcuPlan?

I’d certainly recommend Ocuplan to other practices if they have the necessary equipment. It’s a great service to offer to patients, and a potential practice builder.

It’s refreshing to be paid for applying clinical skills, rather than spectacle sales, and patients enjoy the extra personal care. The staff at OcuPlan are always at the end of an email or phone call if you need assistance, and I really like the relationship it’s helped us develop with the consultants.

Finally, we know that the NHS is under considerable pressure, do you think that OcuPlan can help to alleviate pressure on the NHS and provide an affordable option for patients with a long term eye disease?

I certainly think Ocuplan provides patients with an affordable way of looking after long term eye conditions. Unfortunately NHS services are under considerable pressure, and patients can become anxious about where they fit in these services. Ocuplan provides patients with more control over their own eyecare. I think patients want continuity of care, at both optometric and ophthalmological level, and Ocuplan allows this easily.

If you are a practice owner or optometrist and would like to now how OcuPlan can help your practice and patients, please call our helpful customer support team on 0207 173 5200.