Eye and hearing health clinic in Parliament

Experts from Specsavers have held an eye and hearing health clinic in the UK Parliament – with MPs and peers also given a virtual reality insight into sight conditions.

Parliamentarians from various parties attended the drop-in clinic for eye and hearing checks on 2 December.

Community optometrists and audiologists staffed the session, using an OCT machine, a virtual reality headset simulating sight loss, a hearing screener and a digital otoscope.

The clinic was also an opportunity to talk about the key recommendation from the 2025 access to care report published by Specsavers in September, which brought together senior voices from across the health system.

Paul Morris, director of professional advancement at Specsavers, says:

"We welcomed MPs and peers across the day, with the Specsavers team on hand to also talk about the role of optometry and audiology in neighbourhood health care.

'The Access to Care report highlights how successful neighbourhood NHS schemes, such as glaucoma community services delivered by optometrists, work in parts of the UK while patients in other areas face a health postcode lottery.

"A key recommendation of the report is that these successful community schemes, including an NHS primary care audiology service for adults, must be expanded to improve access to care."

The Specsavers team brought a virtual reality headset with them to give parliamentarians an insight into what patients with eye conditions, such as glaucoma, see and experience.

Mr Morris notes it brought home the impact of eye diseases and prompting conversations about the importance of continuing to raise awareness of eye health – including regular eye health checks – to prevent avoidable sight loss.

The event also highlighted how community optometrists, dispensing opticians, audiologists and their teams have the expertise, care and capacity to do more. Parliamentarians heard about how fully using the skills of these professions would be good for patients, ease pressure on hospitals and support government goals to shift healthcare from hospital to community.