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A HOSPITAL-BASED sight specialist now has one eye on the community after returning to practice part-time.Optometrist Lynne Welham will continue to work one day a week in Eye Casualty, based in the Ophthalmology Outpatient Department at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle.

But she now also runs clinics two days a week at Cooper & Flower, a family-run optician with branches in Middlesbrough, Stokesley and Coulby Newham.

“I love working in Eye Casualty. The work it does is important,” says Lynne, a mother of two children under five.

“But I have really missed the sort of patient interaction that you only get in practice. In Eye Casualty, you may never see a patient again. At Cooper & Flower, you have regular contact with entire families, from young children to great-grandparents.”

Lynne lives in Sedgefield with her husband, Chris, who is a regional director with a pub company. She trained as an optometrist in Glasgow and Manchester, and enjoyed a successful nine-year teaching and management career at the University of Manchester, where she rose to clinic manager.

She has worked at the RVI’s Eye Casualty for three-and-a-half years. As well as walk-in eye casualties, her work at the RVI includes patients with eye complications referred by other hospitals. She also performs YAG and capsulotomy laser treatments for wet macular degeneration, one of the biggest causes of blindness in elderly people.

Founded in 1925, Cooper & Flower are one of the longest established independent opticians in the Tees Valley area.

Lynne adds: “Cooper & Flower branches are a friendly place to work, with great customer service, but what I think is special is that the staff really know their communities and have a great relationship with them.”

Lynne holds clinics at Coulby Newham and Stokesley. For more information, call 01642 591459 or 01642 710832.

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