Local/community optometry.

Winnie has been back in Malaysia for the last couple of weeks - look forward to hearing her adventures when she comes back tomorrow. We have had several patients asking after her, hoping that she hasn't left permanently - she's made fans and friends from patients.

That's the thing about community optometry - we all live here, are local and are in for the long haul. Some of the large optical chains like employing graduates who are great clinicians, but get burnt out with seven day a week mall trading and being moved from one branch to another as holiday cover, and they never get a chance to develop relationships with their patients. Most of my day is spent talking to people whom I've come to know over the years, and it is a joy to see a familiar name in the appointment book.

It's the same with other health professionals. Once you have developed a relationship with your GP, dentist, podiatrist, chiropractor or whoever, you want to see that person again as you do not need to "reinvent the wheel" in your treatment or health programme. Seeing the same person for your care means that you know that both you and your practitioner are "on the same page" and you do not need to keep explaining your history again and again.

Hospitals often annoy patients for this reason - they feel that they are not being heard as the medical staff have to keep asking the same questions as new practitioners come on shift. It might be in the notes, but most of us want to hear the story and see it being told by the patient rather than just bald numbers on a chart.

So, your local Visique optometrist (Visique Kapiti Eyecare here) is part of your community and here for YOU, your eyes, your family, your eyecare.