Laser for £395 per eye? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. AVC explains why you shouldn’t part with a penny until you’ve met your surgeon

Isn’t it incredible how cheap laser eye surgery is these days? You can get both eyes done for less than £800! You can’t open a magazine or surf the net these days without seeing offers like this leap out at you for laser surgery at really affordable prices, so you’d be forgiven for thinking that prices really have fallen through the floor. However, look a little deeper and you’ll discover that these prices really are incredible – in other words, not to be believed.

Now, we at AVC are all in favour of marketing – it’s essential to success and survival – but using unrealistically low prices to attract customers is, at best, damaging to the reputation of refractive surgery and, at worst, dishonest.

Until your eyes have been thoroughly examined by a qualified refractive surgeon it is absolutely impossible to know precisely what kind of treatment will be right for you. Sure, you might be suitable for the bargain headline price of £395 per eye that’s used to tempt you in but it’s just as likely that you’re not. However, by asking for payment BEFORE your consultation, you’re on the hook. Then at your pre-op consultation you may be told that unfortunately your eyes are not suitable for this particular treatment but don’t worry, there is a procedure that is perfect for you – at a cost of £3,000!

Of course, we aren’t suggesting for a moment that the clinics offering these attractively priced packages would ever go ahead with surgery that would not be wholly appropriate to the patient. But that’s not the point; the point is that people feel hoodwinked.

For many people, paying £800 for a non-essential procedure is a big financial decision that may have taken them a long time to make. If they knew it would actually cost nearly four times as much it’s very likely that they would never have even entertained the idea. It’s not surprising they feel trapped and foolish and to add insult to injury, they now have the added stress of trying to get their money refunded.

It’s not surprising that there are rumblings of complaints and murmurs of “con” and if that discourages people from having treatment that can change their lives, that’s a very great shame. We want those people to know that there is a genuine, transparent alternative to the “pile ‘em high, sell’ em cheap” sector of the market and that as an independent clinic, we make our own rules.

At AVC, the consultation part of the process is crucial. Every prospective patient is invited to a two-hour examination at which medical director Mr CT Pillai will make a detailed assessment of the patient’s eyes. Then – and only then – will a decision be made on which treatment is most suitable and a price quoted. All the patient will have paid for by this stage is the £85 consultation fee which, if laser treatment is booked, will be refunded. For procedures such as implantable contact lens or cataract surgery, the £100 consultation fee is not deducted from the final cost due to the complex examination procedure involved.

Our prices are for highly advanced procedures performed by surgeons of exceptional skill and experience, accompanied by superb patient care and commitment. We don’t believe that this can – or should – be provided at a knock-down price.

So, everyone knows what’s going on. There are no financial trap doors for the patients to fall through, they are fully aware of what will happen when they come for treatment and they can look forward to their new life of excellent eyesight with confidence and peace of mind.

Seems simple to us.