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Mr. Dave Allamby FRCS FRCOphth is a London-based LASIK laser refractive surgeon and heads up FOCUS Laser Vision. You may have seen him on the This Morning TV show with Phillip Schofield and Fern Britton or read one of several articles in the national press, recently for treating rock giant Rick Wakeman and broadcaster Paul Ross. FOCUS is a world-leading clinic in the treatment of presbyopia, or age related loss of close vision and offers LASIK laser eye treatment for short sight or long sight.

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LASIK prices go up at Optimax while headline price falls to match Optical Express

April 30th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Optimax, one of the UK’s big 3 laser eye chains, has made a significant price hike for their wavefront LASIK treatment, the UK’s most popular type of vision correction.

Patients will now pay an additional £480 to have both eyes correct with blade free wavefront LASIK. Bilateral (both eyes) treatment has risen from £2,890 in August last year up to £3,370 today.

One of the big changes in the laser eye treatment industry is the battle for a low headline price. Optical Express lead the way with a “from £395” price headline with a huge marketing campaign across the UK. Optical Express have raced ahead over the past few years and now do more treatments than any other UK laser provider.

Optimax has responded to the challenge by dropping their headline price to match OE’s at £395 per eye (Epi-LASEK).

However, you have to look closely to see what is on offer. For Optimax, £395 will not get you either LASIK or superior wavefront vision correction. For that you will have to pay £1,290. The £395 headline is for non-wavefront surface laser which lacks the comfort and rapid recovery that makes the LASIK procedure the most popular amongst patients.

And if you want the advanced blade free Intralase laser rather than a blade, there is an additional £395 (up from £300 per eye last year) to make an Optimax price of £1,685 per eye or £3,370 for both eyes.

OptimaxPrices0408.jpg

Optimax prices in blue as of April 30th 2008. You can compare to prices from August last year just below, in green. You can see how all prices have risen, except for the Epi-LASEK entry price of £395 per eye, which does not include wavefront advanced optics.

A complaint we hear from LASIK patient is just how much more the price escalates to once you attend for a consultation, above the advertised ‘from’ price.

As I wrote about in a recent post, Ultralase have also raised their prices to £1.945 per eye for blade free wavefront LASIK vision correction.

OptimaxPrices0807.jpg

Both Optimax and Ultralase charge a fixed fee for all prescriptions, while Optical Express have a sliding scale based upon the strength of the prescription glasses correction required; the worse the vision, the higher the cost.

The patient attending Optical Express will find typically 3 jumps in price:

1. Additional cost for a prescription above the mild prescription of the headline price
2. Additional cost for wavefront correction ( an upgrade issued back in 2002 by VISX)
3. Additional cost for Intralase blade free dual laser correction

So overall, the UK trend is to offer a low headline price, while actual LASIK prices are on the increase.

I should add here, humbly, that FOCUS Laser Vision prices are against the trend, and we have lowered our advanced blade free wavefront correction price to the best available in the UK. However, we are a specialist clinic serving London and the South-East and without a nationwide footprint. Sorry to the rest of the UK! Blade free ‘Intralase-type’ wavefront LASIK starts at £595 per eye and most patients are not spending much more than around £1,000 per eye for this advanced treatment at FOCUS. OK, personal plug over!

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There Are 4 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Paula on 7 August 2008:

    Dear Dr Allamby,

    Your article regarding price increase is very interesting, but it’s not accurate. I have approached Optimax just this morning, and enquired about the Intralase Lasik (with limited error margings), and the quote I was given is £2040 (Lasik plus Intralase extra), which is exactly the same as the quote I was given by Focus Laser this morning 7 August 2008. Also, Optimax has a patient referral scheme that offers the referee £100 and the future patient also a discount of £100, offering a total of £200 in cash back.
    This would bring the cost of my procedure down to £1940 (the consultation is free).

    Are you willing to match this offer, with or without patient referral?

    If it helps, my details are as follows:
    Right eye: Sphere: -3.25
    Left eye: Sphere: -3.25, Cylinder: 0.25, Axis: 80
    Age: 37

    Kind Regards

    Paula

  2. Comment by Dave Allamby on 7 August 2008:

    hi Paula, thanks for the message.
    The prices shown in my article above ARE exactly the same today (I just rechecked that!).
    They quote LASIK without wavefront at £895 per eye then another £395 to add wavefront for better vision (you should have this option), and then £395 for blade free LASIK. (all per eye)
    Did you specify the wavefront option? Maybe they are running a promotion that isn’t listed on their website, e.g. an email campaign?

    We include wavefront in all our treatments, and yours would be £1020 per eye. No we dont price match as we are still cheaper (offers from other centres excluded).

    By the way, see how much better our WaveLight laser performs in giving better vision.

    So PLEASE! before you have laser eye surgery, look at which machine that clinic uses and check:

    http://www.focusclinics.com/treatments_results.php

    for the results from using that laser. Because no matter how good the surgeon, they CANNOT get better results than the laser is capable of giving. It simply is not possible. Lewis Hamilton still needs a world beating McLaren car to win the race.

    Hope that helps

    Dave

  3. Comment by Paula on 7 August 2008:

    Dear Dr Allamby,

    So.. if I understand correctly, £1020 per eye is the cost for my procedure, i.e. the WaveLight laser procedure with the Swiss Ziemer laser, with wavefront included?

    Please confirm

    Thanks

    Paula

  4. Comment by Dave Allamby on 7 August 2008:

    Hi Paula
    Yes, based on those numbers above, wavefront LASIK with the Swiss Ziemer advanced blade free approach will be only £1020 per eye. We will see you at your consultation and confirm that prescription for you.
    You can get a free consult at FOCUS by quoting LT01 when you book.
    thanks
    Dave

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