CAMPAIGNERS have demonstrated outside a leading branch of Optical Express to call for greater regulation of laser eye surgery treatments.
The group Optical Express Ruined My Life (OERML) say that the Glasgow-based company has been responsible for a number of botched operations which have left some people with severe problems with their eyes.
The staged a demonstration outside a branch in Harley Street, London, yesterday.
Optical Express performs thousands of operations each year designed to improve people's eyesight and remove their reliance on glasses and contact lenses.
Campaigners say they paid for expensive treatments which have left their eyes worse than before. Carol Little, 47, of Kirkcudbright, underwent eye surgery in Scotland when she had laser treatment costing £2040 in order to correct her short-sightedness.
She says she was promised that the treatment would provide her with 20/20 vision, although her eyes began to degrade within two years.
She said: "When I complained I was told that 'this is just something that happens' and that I would have to have the surgery again. Nobody mentioned that my eyes could regress. If they had I would never have gone through with it."
As well as calling for tighter regulations, the campaign wants full audited results for individual surgeons published annually. It is calling for patients to be informed of possible side effects of laser surgery in their first consultation.
Jacqui Smart, of Giffnock, near Glasgow, underwent refractive lens exchange at an Optical Express clinic which physically replaced parts of her eye in 2010.
The 45-year-old spent £4800 on the operation. She said: "It has made my eyes worse than before. It's like looking through a fogged-up window and at night I get 'starbursts' of light when I look at something bright."
A spokesman for the company dismissed the protest, adding they only deal with patients directly.
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