PRESS & MEDIA

My informants missed this in January


www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-n...ne-sex-acts-pervert/

Yet usually so vocal: ‘Optical Express could not be reached for comment.’

Though I have to say, given what I know about the workplace culture at Optical Express (especially the behaviour of some of those at the top of the tree), even for them this is sickening advertising!

‘The pervert was placed on the sex offenders register and ordered to complete a rehab programme for perverts.’
www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-n...s-shoes-spared-jail/

3/3
Not forgetting a complete lack of due diligence in this matter, why is the BBC promoting ANY product, let alone one provided by an unregulated industry

'The Ofcom Broadcasting Code contains the rules which the BBC is required to follow so that BBC viewers and listeners are appropriately protected.'
www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/...rk/content-standards

A definite complaint for Ofcom, though previous similar complaints not upheld!

And why has Gethin Jones refused to answer my reasonable question asking whether or not he paid for his surgery with Julian Stevens?

Meanwhile, regardless that Julian generates revenue ostensibly used to help fund NHS Moorfields Eye Hospital, arranging for his private patients to be referred for NHS aftercare a scandal in itself, and insupportable that his actions went unchallenged by CEO David Probert and MD Nick Strouthidis!

Everything I publish/say is true and factual, supported by evidence, and no-one has ever attempted to sue me for defamation, or anything else related to my work (I wish - publicity!), so why am I - and the many 1,000s of people I represent (with tragic stories that should generate TV & newspaper headlines) ignored by press and media?

In 2019, surprisingly inviting to appear with Dan Reinstein on This Morning, producer Caron Kemp told me they needed to make sure it was a balanced piece - yet ZERO balance when Reinstein has appeared time and time again promoting laser eye surgery, on both ITV and BBC, with some of the presenters getting free surgery from him!

Waiting for the call to arrange my pick up time I was instead called by a junior team member, who nervously told me the producer had gone with another case study.

Utter bullsh*t (as I told him)!

As My Beautiful Eyes Campaign manager, calling for UK government regulation of the refractive eye surgery industry, and patient advocate representing an endless stream of people damaged by this industry, it was a no brainer that I should have been the obvious choice - as I was!

But just as I'd guessed, I later discovered that Reinstein had refused to appear with me!

And my replacement didn't get on either, because waiting in the green room he challenged Dan about the number of suicides caused by the debilitating results of laser eye surgery, Dan threw a tantrum and refused to go on if he did!

The Reinstein Cowboy (so named by his peers, or Dr Blindstein as named by Boris Johnson) then claimed he only does repair work on 1 in 1000 patients (only true if others he's damaged can't be fixed!) - he also left Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford gobsmacked, claiming that wearing glasses is a big risk!



Scroll back to 17 October 2019 for full story and more ...

It should be noted that there has been NO balanced piece on TV shows about laser eye surgery at ANY time - in fact NO mention of damaged patients ever in the promos advertising clinics/surgeons without caveat!

Why is this?

Yet The Mirror (and all other newspapers) refused to publish details of Paul Dance's suicide last year, when he hanged himself after seriously debilitating results of lens exchange surgery at Optegra Eye Hospital



"Joanna Hartley said the surgeon 'seemed very nervous and she was rushing'"
www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-y...pen-hole-eye-5475168

“The error has had a life-changing impact on her and her husband as she constantly has to live with her light sensitivity, pain and discomfort."
www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/womans-for...asses-watch-24227003

2/3
I met with Moorfields Eye Hospital CEO David Probert, and Medical Director Nick Strouthidis, on 10 September 2018*

Top of my agenda was Julian Stevens, and the fact that he was referring some of his own damaged patients from his private clinic to his NHS clinic! (And believe me, there’re many, some very seriously damaged, as a Moorfields optom indiscreetly informed me when accompanying one of my MBEFoundation clients to their NHS consult).

They told me that Julian was retiring at the end of the year, as if I should be reassured that there was no need to worry as it wouldn’t be happening again, which was not quite the response I was expecting after reporting what I consider to be serious abuse of his NHS position!

Next on my agenda, for the government to acknowledge the enormity of the unregulated refractive eye surgery scandal, data for the numbers of private patients seeking aftercare from NHS must be collated, and I asked David and Nick if Moorfields would consider doing this, and lead the way for other NHS eye hospitals to follow suit.

They appeared to be entirely receptive to my suggestion, as I would expect all NHS hospitals to be - not fair to expect they should use their resources to clean up the mess caused by the private providers who continue to profit from doing so, they agreed that they would implement data collection of future patients damaged by private providers.

Read the Centre for Health and the Public Interest report:
'Where a patient is admitted to the NHS due to the fault of private healthcare, the private sector should be expected to pay for the costs incurred by NHS emergency departments for that patient’s treatment. Otherwise patients will continue to be perilously dumped back into the NHS — and we the taxpayers will have to pay the costs.’
www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...eneral-chat?start=90

•17 June 2019, I wrote to David Probert:

'When I met with you and Nick Strouthidis on 10 Sept 2018, I suggested that MEH should consider collecting data to show the high number of patients undergoing NHS treatment as a result of refractive surgery provided by private clinics/surgeons who refuse to provide aftercare.

Figuratively speaking, you both scratched your heads and said you’d need to think how this could be done as it wouldn’t be an easy task, and whilst I don’t accept that this information should be too difficult to collect, nine months later I wonder if you’re still considering my suggestion, or was the idea dismissed the minute I left?

You will also recall that the primary reason for our meeting was to discuss my concerns about Julian Stevens, and his private patients left with post op problems, including those he should not have operated on, and I explained that Julian had arranged for some of these patients to be referred to his MEH clinic for NHS aftercare.

You told me that Julian was retiring from the NHS at the end of the year, and I was therefore shocked when one of his colleagues informed me that he had kept his private practicing privileges at Moorfields.

Putting my concerns about his treatment of private patients aside, will you please explain why Julian Stevens is an exception to the hospital’s policy?’



•David quickly replied:

'Thank you for pointing out this inaccuracy on our website. The statement does not accurately reflect the practising privileges policy of Moorfields Private.
Consultants who have retired from Moorfields NHS are allowed to continue in Moorfields Private as long as they continue to fulfil their fitness to practice requirements of the GMC, demonstrate clinical outcomes through audit comparable to expected benchmark standards, fulfil our local mandatory training requirements and participate in satisfactory annual appraisal.
It is the decision of the medical director, as the GMC responsible officer for Moorfields, to assess whether these requirements are met and whether practising privileges can continue for each individual on a case by case basis.
Our consultants with practising privileges who have retired from the NHS have all fulfilled these requirements. In that regard, the scrutiny of the clinical practice and conduct of our retired consultants is entirely the same as for our NHS consultant staff.
Our website is about to undergo a full reconfiguration and this particular point will be addressed as part of that process.’**

So absolutely nothing was done about Julian’s abuse of the NHS, instead he was rewarded with ongoing private practising privileges on his retirement!

•21 June 2019, I continued:

'Hi David

As asked in my previous email, are you still considering my suggestion that MEH should consider collecting data to show the high number of patients undergoing NHS treatment as a result of refractive surgery provided by private clinics/surgeons who refuse to provide aftercare, or was the idea dismissed the minute I left our meeting on 10 Sept 2018?

I look forward to your response.’

•Same day, David replied:

'Sasha
Both Nick and I welcomed your suggestion which we are considering as part of our audit programme. As you can imagine we have limited resources which we must manage wisely and prioritise. This area is being actively considered for review this year.
Best wishes
David’

•10 August 2020, me to David:

'Hi David
With the numbers of refractive patients damaged by the private sector forced to seek NHS aftercare steadily increasing, I am chasing an update re data collection as we previously discussed.
One example is M____ (dob 17 July, 19__).
After debilitating lens exchange surgery at Optical Express, Mr __ had previously undergone explanation operations at MEH, and on 25 December 2019 he attended with a retinal detachment for emergency surgery.
I look forward to your response.’

•David replied later same day:

'Dear Sasha
Many thanks. I hope you are well.
I’m afraid our focus, and that of the teams here at the moment, is on service recovery and coping with the current national pandemic. We therefore haven’t got easy access to this data but I will continue to look to build a process where we can once we can commit more audit time to it.
With best wishes
David’

Obviously I couldn't argue with that excuse (except to say there was no pandemic in 2019)…

Nearly three years since our initial meeting, and I wonder how many more thousands of patients damaged by the private sector (including Julian Stevens) have passed through the doors of Moorfields Eye Hospital and other nhs.uk hospitals, whilst the government et al ignore this massive scandal, and the BBC allow their presenters to promote it - thereby all responsible for so many who will (and have had) their eyes and lives irreparably damaged!

I am not an IT expert, but with all records computerised, I don't see the difficulty for Moorfields Eye Hospital (and others) to simply add a 'tick box’ to the records of new patients attending for treatment, highlighting the info that their problems are a result of refractive eye surgery!

However, with some of their own private surgeons responsible for damaging patients (at private wings attached to other nhs.uk hospitals too) I can see why they are so reluctant to collect this data.

I will be writing to David Probert again about this matter, and will update you.

*It should be noted that Nick Strouthidis told me that he's quite myopic, and at 44 (then) the wrong age for laser, so would be looking at Multifocal lens replacement, with which he said - and I quote - ‘there’s a significant risk’!

More about our meeting here:
www.opticalexpressruinedmylife.co.uk/ind...eneral-chat?start=60

**Image from Moorfields Private Eye Hospital website today!
www.moorfields-private.co.uk/about-us•

1/3
This was absolutely disgraceful, yet more blatant advertising and promotion of unregulated #refractivesurgery by the BBC! But I'll save my detailed criticism for part 3

(excerpts)

As My Beautiful Eyes Foundation patient advocate, I have personally represented three people damaged by ‘Dr Julian’ at his Moorfields Private clinic, with plenty more who’ve contacted me complaining about his treatment of them.

• Left with worse vision than before laser eye surgery, Mark issued court proceedings against Julian Stevens. He had a very good case, but Julian’s MDU solicitor, Kirsty Jeeves, refused to accept service by email on 10 September 2014...

Due by 4pm that day, with little time left, Mark dashed to her office to safely hand deliver the legal paperwork.

However, Kirsty refused to open it until the next day - a day too late!!

Mark was then ill advised by a Clerkenwell court representative (hence why they are not allowed to provide legal advice!), who told him he would be better to start a new claim, instead of appealing against Miss Jeeves’ unreasonable behaviour as he should have done, because unfortunately you cannot issue legal proceedings a second time on the same point, termed an ‘abusive process of the court’.

So we went to court, and the Judge was lovely, but explained to Mark that her hands were tied as he had already issued a second claim, whilst Kirsty and Counsel sat smirking ('Dr Julian' of course nowhere to be seen).

However, whilst it was of no consolation to Mark, the Judge did clearly state that he had not lost the case, which she said he might very well have won, that it was dismissed entirely on a point of law. (She also criticised Kirsty Jeeves for her refusal to accept service an hour late on the 10 September.)

Like so many others, Mark suffers with depression as a result of #laserereyesurgery.

• As Julian clearly hand wrote in her medical notes at her initial pre operative consultation, 'Beth' suffered with Meibomian Gland Dysfunction (MGD), dry eyes, and low tear film (hard copy evidence available if anyone thinks of suing me!)

All contra-indicators to laser eye surgery, yet Julian went ahead and operated!

Accompanying Beth to a later consultation with Julian Stevens, he disagreed with our argument that he should never have operated on her eyes.

He did however spend at least an hour trying to convince me that he was a wonderful surgeon, pulling out data and research papers, whilst a backlog of victims piled up in his waiting room so that his practise manager had to come in at least twice to urge him to hurry up.

Even then it seemed no-one wanted to be publicly named and shamed by me!

Beth is also left to suffer for the rest of her life, with unbearable dry eyes, fighting depression, and no legal recourse.

• Ms L was also left with severe dry eyes and nerve damage after surgery with Julian Stevens, and was not informed about the use of MMC in her lasek surgery.*

In one letter to Ms L, Julian Stevens wrote: 'the tears of depressed people have been shown to increase dry eye’.

I kid you not!

29 November 2019, Richard MacMillan, Head of Legal Services at Moorfields NHS Foundation Trust wrote, 'As outlined in my previous email, these types of claims are handled via the Consultants…'

So anyone believing that private consultants who pay for the use of nhs.uk facilities (address, operating suite) are legally covered by the NHS - think again!**

• My complaints about this at a subsequent meeting with the CEO lead to Moorfields Private surgeons providing a separate MMC consent form to patients.

** Case in point, talking to a couple at one of my many appointments at Moorfields Eye Hospital retinal clinic in 2017/18 (injections in my eye after macular edoema cause by occlusions), they told me that an elderly friend had paid to be fast tracked for NHS cataract surgery.

Because the correspondence was coming from the surgeon’s nhs.uk email address the women reasonably believed this to be the case, with no idea she was not receiving NHS treatment!

Therefore misleading that the BBC video shows the entrance to Moorfields NHS!

I am greatly concerned that private refractive surgery is so often linked to NHS hospitals, even advertised with big posters along the NHS corridors of the hospital I visited in Sheffield with a client a few years ago.

NB: Julian was previously a good ‘friend' to Optical Express, who would send their damaged patients to his private clinic, often meeting with Patrick James Green (see Optical Express Ruined My Life website for more about that man), until OERML’s presence apparently became too threatening to his reputation, and they had to move on to someone else…

Part 2 will be published later this week, and as both the CEO and MD at Moorfields Eye Hospital have an idea of what's in store, I suspect crisis talks may have been held this morning!

(full length)

Ophthalmologist Julian Stevens has been on my (s)hit list for a number of years, my concerns about his actions when employed as nhs.uk consultant top of the agenda at a meeting I had with CEO David Probert and MD Nick Strouthidis at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2018 - I've just not had time to publish the story ?

All good things come to those who wait, and I will endeavour to do so tomorrow, but meanwhile, watch today's Morning Live on iplayer (from 23 mins in) for unacceptable and misleading product promotion from the BBC - again!


www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000wgcn/m...ve-series-3-24052021

Keeping in mind that they (+ITV et al) won't allow me, or any of the many 1,000s people damaged by the unregulated #refractivesurgery industry, to speak out - The Jeremy Vine a case in point last week!

This is a massive scandal, repeatedly and blatantly silenced by the press, media, government... even though my office is bursting with so much hard evidence to support all my allegations (+endless stream of resulting tragedies, including suicides, people left blind, eyes removed!)

Anyone doubting me should ask why I'm still standing, why no-one has sued me, and why I was advised by the police in 2013 to surround my house with CCTV!

More important to ask - wtf is going on when a (global) medical scandal, way bigger than any other in recent years, is totally ignored, yet costing the NHS zillions in aftercare?

Meanwhile, Gethin Jones should disclose whether or not he paid for his treatment!

Outside Optimax on Monday (17 May), I was sent a text that Jeremy Vine wanted people with dry eyes to email him for a 'phone in’ discussion on his BBC Radio 2 show that day

I knew he wouldn’t talk to me - remember when he asked Jeremy Vine On 5 viewers whether he should have laser eye surgery? I had called in and they wanted me to speak, but after being on hold for ages I was told they’d run out of time!
Details posted 3 May 2019.*

So I quickly asked my companions to email vine@bbc.co.uk, but not to mention eye surgery as the cause of their dry eyes.

Four of them then received calls from the programme's researchers asking for brief details. Again not mentioning eye surgery, all were advised they might get a call back in the next 15 mins to speak on the show...

We planned that I would hijack the conversation given an opening, so when Aaron Winter's call came asking him to stand by, we rushed to my nearby car where it was quiet.

I was shaking like crazy, and had to reassure Aaron that it wasn’t due to nerves - I was running on pure adrenaline!

Waiting for at least 10 minutes - me worried that his phone would run out of battery, Aaron was finally told he was going on air!
Jeremy Vine asked him a few questions, and Aaron answered before handing his phone to me whilst JV was still chattering on...

The recording is self explanatory, and I was speaking fast because I expected to be cut off immediately - not sure why I wasn’t, but perhaps I was too quick for them!



You'll notice that JV didn't even acknowledge my existence, but at least Dr Sarah Jarvis agreed with me about government regulation!

Emails from Natasha Birch & Leigh Stace were mentioned, both with us at the demo - and we did laugh at Sarah Jarvis offering advice to Leigh when she had no idea why he has dry eyes!

She’s a female version of Hilary Jones, who knows everything about every medical problem - via Google and scribbled notes before going on chat shows as an 'expert’!

You can listen to the full discussion here...



Without naming the company, it was a blatant promo for Optical Express by Jenny Eclair - google her name + Lipiflow and see what you find!

She didn't mention that her Lipiflow treatment is of course free: www.opticalexpress.co.uk/magazine/article/jenny-eclair

And until I found them yesterday, I’d forgotten that I'd replied to her tweets about OE and Lipiflow in 2018 - but today it appears she's deleted them!

Meanwhile , Sarah Jarvis was totally incorrect when she said that Lipiflow is a 'one off’ fix for dry eyes!

And her comment that you should only have eye surgery with nhs.uk trained ophthalmologists ignorant and uninformed!

Regardless of which, thrilled that I finally managed to get My Beautiful Eyes Foundation mentioned on air, the BBC having cut so many of my interviews over the last five years!
____________________
* "More blatant censorship this morning!

I got through to Jeremy Vine On 5 at 9.30am, introduced myself, and was told my name had been mentioned by quite a few callers, and one of the programme's researchers would like to speak with me.

The researcher took plenty of details from me, said they’d definitely want me to speak on air, and would flag me up with the gallery (production team).

Another person then called, asking me to be available to speak at 10.15am, with a reminder not to mention any laser provider by name.

Next call at 10.15am, told they were about to put me through to Jeremy Vine, and to please only talk about my laser eye surgery, not my work as My Beautiful Eyes campaigner and patient advocate. Wtf?

Quickly biting my tongue I said OK, if that’s what you want… (fingers crossed behind my back!)

And then I waited... listening to the audio feed - wanting to scream at Sheila (NHS cataract surgery & laser for floaters) that she DID NOT have laser vision correction, and that LVC is NOT available on the NHS!

The exact words I said were, 'Unf*ckingbelievable - more bias!’, before I slammed the phone down on the person who came back to me to say sorry, they’d run out of time!

'On 4 July, Mr Dance took his life in the plant room of the hospital where he worked, leaving five suicide notes in his car for Ms Phillips, his sister and his three children, saying he could not cope with his poor vision.' ?


www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-90355...apology-surgeon.html

Whilst Sai Kolli was Paul's operating surgeon, Denise Phillips blames Mark Wevill for his suicide.

"In her evidence, Ms Phillips, mother of Mr Dance's youngest son, said he had left the meeting with Mr Wevill fearing he could lose his sight and that he would become a burden on his family.

In his evidence, Mr Wevill, often close to tears, said Mr Dance had been seeking guarantees about his treatment that he could not give as all procedures carried risk.

Mr Wevill's email to his colleague said that in the consultation of 24 June he had explained that he should not have his new lenses removed. [Pushed for YAG, which he convinced the coroner was risk free!]

He added: 'He didn't listen then and probably won't listen again. He's a Sai patient and is going to consume lots more time.’ [Mark Wevill had typed ‘LOTS’ in upper case!]

He went on to ask about Optegra's plans for his fees 'for managing Sai's problem patients'.

Mr Wevill told the inquest he had been 'frustrated and fraught', not with Mr Dance, but with his workload, which was making it difficult to give patients the care they required.

The coroner asked if there had been any further contact before 4 July. Mr Wevill replied: 'I regret to say I didn't make contact.'

After he was questioned by Ms Phillips' representative Sasha Rodoy, a patient advocate who runs the My Beautiful Eyes Foundation campaign group, Mr Wevill offered Ms Phillips a tearful apology.

He said: 'I am really sorry for your loss. I am really sorry I wrote that horrible email.

'Ms Phillips said: 'I will never forgive you.’ [She grabbed the microphone and shouted this at Mark Wevill.]

The Coroner concluded that Mr Dance had been made aware of the risks of the surgery by Optegra. [Because he accepted their evidence as gospel.]

After the inquest, Ms Phillips and Ms Rodoy called for the Government to introduce strict regulations on the refractive eye surgery industry, and to ensure potential patients were fully aware of all risks."

More about this in due course...

After weeks of preparation, on behalf of his partner Denise Phillips (Dee), I spent today questioning the witnesses at Paul Dance’s inquest - they chaperoned by lawyers and barristers - and though I say it myself, I did a damned fine job

Unfortunately however, the coroner, David Reid, chose to accept what the two surgeons claimed re informed consent and statistics.
Close to 6.30pm, immediately after Mr Reid delivered his decision, Dee and I were interviewed by journalist Michele Paduano for this evening's BBC News, standing together outside Worcestershire Coroner's Court...

On my way back to the hotel, I was shocked to discover that I’d been cut from the broadcast, and having not answered my phone call questioning why, this was his text message: ‘Yeah I basically f*cked it up - sorry. None of your clips were libel free. Sorry’



For the record, I like (and had trusted) Michele, giving him this story initially, and on his behalf, asking Dee to allow BBC News to film the funeral cortège in August, the clip included in his broadcast last week (26 Nov post).

Michele Paduano is an experienced journalist, and would have known if I was saying anything libellous when he interviewed me, able to offer me the opportunity to rephrase my comments - surely?

And the only clip I believe might have given BBC legal department cause for concern was my criticism of TV personalities like Ruth Langsford (lucratively paid 'ambassador' for Clarivu, Optegra's brand name for lens exchange) persuading people to have eye surgery - in her case telling people, ‘Do it, do it, do it!’ - without any warnings of risk. But even that was factual.

I’m still in Worcestershire, can’t drive back to London in the dark because of my own visual problems after laser eye surgery at Optimax in 2011 - the reason for my work that has taken over my life, but when I’m home, I’ll tell you more as soon as I can.

Unlike the BBC, who had no reason not to do so, I will also identify the two surgeons.

"A nurse claims her husband killed himself after 'losing hope' when his corrective eye surgery allegedly left him with dry eyes and blurry vision." ?



www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8999691...-blurred-vision.html

'Denise Phillips, 46, from Worcester, had been with electrician Paul Dance, 62, who had no history of depression or previous self-harm, for more than 18 years and they had a 16-year-old son together. Paul hated wearing glasses and paid £6,990 to have new lenses surgically put into his eyes in January, but was left distraught after learning that a deterioration in his vision would require a second operation.'

"Denise explained: 'He left that meeting distraught because he didn't know what to do and feared he might go blind. He had lost hope, felt abandoned and couldn't face life anymore.'

She added: 'I have to make this public because he asked me to. I feel that if one person reads it and decides not to risk going through what Paul did, his death will not have been in vain.'

Denise has been supported by Sasha Rodoy, who runs the My Beautiful Eyes Foundation and acts as a patient-advocate for those who have concerns over refractive eye surgery..'

David Reid, Senior Coroner for Worcestershire, will conduct the inquest on December 2 at Stourport-on-Severn.

A spokesperson for the company [OPTEGRA] said: 'We are extremely saddened by Mr Dance's death and offer our sincere condolences to the family.

'As the inquest is ongoing, it is not appropriate for us to comment at this time and, as required, we will support the coroner with any procedures or requests he has.’"