Matheson Optometrists have been providing eye care to families in Hampshire for over 30 years.
All the Matheson practices are located in small Hampshire towns and villages where the practice is able to look after the local people. It is not uncommon for 2, 3 or 4 generations of patients to attend the practices.
Because all 6 practices are fairly close to each other as kids grow up and move away from home to nearby towns and villages they often transfer to a nearby Matheson practice.
Andrew Matheson has a special interest in paediatric optometry, seeing patients where there is a family history of eye problems as young as 6 months old.
On the other end of the spectrum, our optometrists also specialise in macular degeneration,glaucoma and dry eye, diseases that become more prevalent as we get older. When our patients are too old and infirm to travel to our practices we still can examine them at home by way of a domiciliary visit. We try to make these visits as comprehensive as possible, taking illuminated test charts, tonometers and other examination equipment with us to the patient’s home.
In our practices we use specialist equipment to look after family eye health, such as retinal cameras, auto-fluorescence imaging and OCT scanning. We work closely with several local NHS eye hospitals to provide community care for established glaucoma sufferers, for glaucoma referral refinement, medical retina screening for suspicious retinal lesions, PEARS assessment for red-eye, flashes and floaters etc. Emergency
Because we are therapeutic optometrists we can treat most eye diseases from within our practices and because Andrew Matheson has the College higher qualification in Glaucoma, a patient’s treatment plan can be modified from within the practice, without needing re-referral to the eye hospital.
We also work closely with local private Eye Clinics, especially glaucoma and vitreo-retinal surgeons, providing community post-surgery follow-up and treatment. Again because of our therapeutic qualifications, this means that post operative complications such as cystoid macular oedema and uveitis can be treated appropriately and quickly. This ensures a speedy recovery and better outcome. We take referrals from optometrists and ophthalmologists for OCT scanning, Dry Eye investigation and treatment, visual fields, Retinal Photography, Chromogen Colour Vision and dyslexia treatment.
Andrew Matheson is currently working with local hospitals to set up a community Lucentis Injection Clinic. This will enable patients with acute onset Wet Macular Degeneration to treated much earlier and so hopefully this will mean that they will suffer much less visual loss. Also the availability of a community Macular Degeneration Clinic will make these facilities much more convenient for these usually elderly patients and will free up the consultants at the local hospitals so that they are available to treat the more complicated patients efficiently. It is because Andrew has supplementary prescribing qualifications that this is possible.
Andrew’s wife Rebecca is the company secretary and accountant. In the early days she was known to turn her hand to Shop-fitting, grinding spectacle lenses and reception duties. Jane, Andrew’s sister is a manager in the group, ensuring that the group runs efficiently and Andrew knows where his next clinic is held tomorrow.
Claire, Andrew’s daughter is now a qualified optometrist. Having worked in the practices since she was 13 and first became fascinated by all aspects of eye-care. She gets a terrific buzz from being able to help people, whether by making their spectacles, scanning their retina or simply helping them chose an appropriate frame for their needs. Claire went to Romania with the charity returning vision (returning-vision.co.uk) helping provide much needed eye-care in remote villages.
We believe in helping to look after the environment for future generations. Our practices and equipment have been converted to low energy, high efficiency LED lighting.
