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A consumer study has taken place to investigate the support that contact lens wearers receive from their providers. Many patients reported that they received letters to advertise new discount and sale deals for lenses and new products and a fifth received a regular updated newsletter on the industry. A figure of 69 per cent received reminder letters for check ups, but worryingly, 14% of users advised they did not receive any communication at all from their service provider showing that the communication paths are still not up to an acceptable level despite the apparent high demand for more information from wearers.
A quarter of those patients interviewed admitted to dropping out of using the service in the past and over a third were regularly concerned about helath implications and safety of wear from stories reported in the press. Over half of all interviewed agreed that they did see the opticians role as being important when it came to giving advice on general eye health.
Buying the lenses online was a section included in the consumer study and again, the results found that very few patients had ever been in discussion with their optician about options to purchase their lenses and appropriate products via the internet. Communication needs to be paramount between the users and their practitioners and varied and regular information needs to be distributed it was summarized.