Senior Dispensing Opticians carry out Low Vision Aid (LVA) assessments for patients of the Trust.
An LVA assessment involves us working with your existing vision, assessing your visual performance and ability to perform daily living tasks and providing advice and any optical aids which may help, these might include high powered spectacles, hand magnifiers, stand magnifiers, spectacle mounted and hand held telescopes. We may also provide advice on specific adaptations for your daily living, lighting and strategies to improve your visual performance.
We provide LVA assessments to you in our specialist LVA clinics, if you have been registered blind (Severely sight impaired) or partially sighted (Sight impaired) by a Consultant Ophthalmologist.
You may also be seen in these clinics even if you have not been registered if you are encountering difficulties with deteriorating vision.
We would normally issue any Low Vision aids, hand magnifiers, Stand magnifiers, spectacle mounted and hand held telescopes that you needed on an extended loan basis (i.e. at no charge to you).
We may contact other agencies regarding your needs if we think it would be helpful e.g. Eye Clinic Liaison and Information Officers (ECLIOs), Rehabilitation Officers, Educational support services etc.
How do I make an appointment with this service?
To be seen in the LVA clinic you must be referred by your optometrist, GP, or by an ophthalmologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust or another hospital.
Clinics
Adult low vision aid clinics run on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings and Thursday afternoons in the main eye clinic at St. James’s University hospital and on Tuesday afternoons in the Eye unit at Seacroft Hospital.
Paediatric low vision aid clinics run on Monday afternoons, in the Orthoptic department, Multi Speciality Outpatients at St. James’s University hospital.
We are also now providing LVA telephone triage clinics prior to your initial assessment (where possible) where one of our specialist optometrists telephones you to assess whether we can help without bringing you into the department.
We provided LVA telephone follow ups for those patients who have had an initial face to face assessment.
Waiting times
Please be aware that your appointment may take up to one hour to be completed from the time your appointment is booked.