Rustington opticians help key workers with glasses, contact lenses and hearing aids

The stores in The Street and at Sainsbury’s in Rustington Retail Park are closed for all routine eye and hearing tests but they remain available to provide essential care and support for local key workers, by appointment.

Customers are encouraged to call if they need urgent support with a visual problem, or if they have issues with their glasses, contact lenses or hearing aids.

David Durick, retail director, said: “We are honoured to have been able to support so many key workers in store and are so grateful for everything they are doing to help us battle this virus.

“They have told us we are heroes for helping them but we think they are the real heroes. We are all in this together – and we will beat this together.

“We want the local community to know that, while we are closed for routine appointments at the present time, we are still very much here to support people with their essential eye and hearing care needs, so please give us a call if you need us.”

If anyone is required to attend the store, they will be asked to do so and key workers will be prioritised. Staff are seeing people only by appointment and, in line with government advice, are following all current guidance.

The team at the store in The Street have already helped a number of key workers with their glasses, including a frontline NHS nurse, a senior hospital manager and a retired nurse who needed new varifocals so she could go back to work and play her part during the pandemic.

A paramedic who also needed varifocals was visited at the ambulance station, as he was on duty and could not go into the store to be measured up. As manager Claire Durick-Glen waited to help him, he was called to an emergency, so he agreed to meet her at the store later. After a 16-hour shift, he arrived to be greeted with a comfy chair and a cup of coffee.

The team also helped a food delivery driver who had lost his glasses and could not drive without them. They managed to take two new pairs to his house for him.

Specsavers staff are classed as key workers to provide urgent and essential eye care to those who need it. This includes supporting other key workers who could not function without their help and people who would come to harm without their health expertise, especially where the usual hospital services and NHS facilities are being prioritised for the fight against Covid-19.

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