AN EDINBURGH Specsavers branch in Morningside has been nominated for prestigious opticians and optometry awards.
The branch has been nominated for Optometrist of the Year, Optical Assistant Team of the Year, Hearing Care Practice of the Year, and Multiple Practice of the Year at the UK Optician Awards and the Scottish Optometry Awards.
Clinical director of the Specsavers in Morningside, Michael O’Kane, said that the nominations mean a lot as they “reflect everyone’s hard work”.
The Optician Awards take place every year in London, with this year’s instalment slated for 13 December at the Royal Lancaster Hotel.
The UK Optician Awards are organised by the Optician magazine and aim to recognise excellence in UK optometry and eyecare practice.
The Scottish Optometry Awards is an awards night organised to celebrate the work done by opticians in Scotland, specifically.
It is organised by Vision Scotland and will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow on 15 November as part of the larger Scottish Optical Conference.
On what his team is doing so well, Michael O’Kane said: “With our team, they care a lot.
“They help with the patient journeys, they’re a really close-knit team, and they work well together.
“They’re keen to learn and they’re incredible passionate about what we do here.
“They know that’s not just a retail job, they know we’re genuinely helping people and saving sight in any cases.
“There’s been a couple cases where we’ve genuinely saved lives.
“We had someone will swelling in the brain that we were able to detect very quickly, we detected someone who had a stroke that didn’t know, and we able to get them up to the stroke ward.”
Earlier this month, the Morningside Specsavers store hosted an event in collaboration with local businesses to provide free eye and hearing examinations for the city’s homeless, as well as providing free meals and essential goods.
Michael commented at the time on the importance of breaking down barriers to the accessing eye and ear care.
On what it means for the clinic to be recognised for their work, Michael said: “Its’s fantastic – there’s some really big names that are held in high esteem nominated for the awards and it’s an honour to be on the same page as them.
“The fact that it’s been recognised how hard we work and how well we care for the patients is amazing.
“For example, Alice [a member of staff], a couple of days ago helped walk a patient walk all the way down to her house because she was elderly and the wind was quite strong.
“These are the sort of daily things we do, and a lot of people find that a surprising thing.
“But it’s what we’ve grown with – we opened up in 2009 as a small store looking after each other, being part of the community, and we’ve never lost that.
“I’m really proud of my team that they’ve been recognised as standing out amongst all the other opticians in the UK and Ireland.”
Michael says that their move last year to a full accessible, state-of-the-art practice last year has helped them to fulfil their social mission as well as provide innovative care solutions.
