Paediatrics

The POLA clinic

What is the purpose of paediatric appointments in the POLA clinic?

Paediatric appointments in the POLA clinic offer a full primary eye care service to children below 9 years of age. Children aged 9-18 years who would like to have a routine eye examination can book into the Primary Eyecare clinic.

Each eye examination is carried out by student optometrists working under the close supervision of a General Optical Council-registered optometrist.

Who can be seen?

The paediatric clinic is for infants and children up to the age of 9 years. Anyone can have an eye examination; specialised tests can be used for children that have not reached ‘reading’ age, so we do not have any lower age limit for the clinic.

People above the age of 9 years are occasionally seen in the clinic if they are experiencing vision symptoms suggestive of eye coordination/eye focusing problems, and would benefit from specialised testing methods.

We also offer a clinic for specifically for under-16s who have short-sightedness (or myopia).

Book an appointment

Appointments can be made by contacting the main optometry clinic reception.

Phone: 0161 306 3860
Email: optometry.clinics@manchester.ac.uk

Costs

All paediatric eye examinations are provided free of charge.

What happens at appointments?

The student optometrist will ask some detailed questions about:

• the patient’s eye history;
• any previous spectacles;
• current general health.

Tests will be performed to assess vision, depth perception, co-ordination of their eyes, spectacle prescription, eye focusing ability and eye health.

From this, our team will determine the patient’s spectacle prescription. It may be necessary for our team to administer eye drops to the patient during the eye examination. These drops temporarily relax the eyes’ focusing ability, allowing the true spectacle prescription to be determined. This is particularly helpful in children who have lots of focusing ability.

It is important to allow up to two hours for the appointment, as the examination is very closely supervised by a qualified optometrist and may involve the use of eye drops.

What to bring

Please bring along any current spectacles (if relevant).

It is also helpful if you are able to bring your most recent spectacle prescription, but do not worry if this isn’t available.

Please bring along a list of any regular medications.

Service lead

Dr Ketan Parmar.

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