Eye and we appreciate you

As we go about our daily lives at home and at work, there's a silent hero safeguarding one of our most precious senses - sight. And while they often work in darkness, I want to shine a light on the invaluable contributions of optometrists as we celebrate World Optometry Week.

While I’m not an Optometrist myself, I have worked within Bupa Optical for 2.5 years (and 7+ at Bupa APAC) and have come to understand Optometry isn't merely about prescribing glasses or fitting contact lenses; it's about nurturing and revitalising healthy vision and lifestyles within communities, households and workplaces.

Imagine a world where blurry vision hinders learning in classrooms, where road accidents spike due to undiagnosed vision impairments, or where the elderly struggle needlessly with diminished eyesight. Optometrists are there at the frontline working to prevent these scenarios, ensuring that individuals of all ages can see clearly and live life to their full potential.

At Bupa Optical, we believe that everyone, regardless of where they live, deserves access to essential eye care services. Through partnerships with local and international organisations, we extend our reach to communities around the world, offering screenings, education, and support to those in need.

As part of our commitment to promoting eye health amongst communities in need, Bupa Optical Optometrists coordinate yearly trips to regional and remote communities around the Northern Territory to provide eye care. We also donated over 5,000 pairs of spectacles and sunglasses frames to Cambodia Vision last year along with $5 from every frame sold as part of a World Sight Day campaign.

While the work we do in the community is really important and uplifting, even more inspiring is the attitudes I have seen amongst our Optometrists in recent years to see their role in enhancing and protecting general health along with eye health.

This commitment across our business has seen us invest in new holistic preventative health programs such as our EyeInspect which uses high-tech retinal screening technology and a database of more than 10 million retinal scans to identify eye and non-eye health problems such as diabetes. If detected, they can then be discussed further with the customer and with a trusted medical professional.

I have spoken to a few of our Optometrists who have customers come back to them and tell them that they have literally saved their lives because of an eye test and early medical intervention… and that is really gratifying and to be honest, something that gets me up and going in the morning.

So today, let’s raise our glasses (you see what I did there!), to our amazing Optometrists in Australia and around the world!