We take the time

Essential:

Your eyeballs and your Medicare card.

Desirable:

Your current specs or contacts (if you wear them), Private Health Fund or DVA card if you’re in the club. List of any current prescribed, over-the-counter or complimentary medicines.

We’re not a ‘one or two? Here are your specs’ kind of joint.

Your consult takes as long as it takes, depending on the specific needs of your eye balls and what you want to do with them on a daily basis to make your life hum. We’re wanting to keep you seeing the best you possibly can, and doing what you love now and right up until you’re visiting our mate Ken next door (Google our location!). Allow 40 minutes for the full consult and a further three weeks to make up your mind if you need to choose frames or sunnies! (Yep, only joking with the latter, but the choice of colours and styles can be mind-boggling.)

Whilst David will take a long, hard look at every aspect of your eyeballs (inside and out), he’ll also be wanting to hear all about your general health, what you love to do, what you have to do and what you need from him. He’s chatty and loves to joke and get to know you. In fact the only thing he really takes seriously is you, your health and your eyeballs. No question is too daft and he’ll keep asking you to throw more at him until your imagination runs dry. In addition to his years of expertise, qualifications and experience, David will use his much-loved ‘toys’ to provide him with extra data so he can tailor his advice just for you. Together you will toss around the challenges, the opportunities and possible solutions. He will make a recommendation, but the final decision is yours. If he thinks you’re an idiot for ignoring critical advice, he’ll tell you (nicely at first).

Every boy needs his toys and owning his own practice allows David to carefully research and select what he needs from the latest optical technology to ensure you get the best possible diagnosis, ongoing management and the most highly tailored prescription for your glasses or contacts. Our equipment is not for show or marketing purposes: its selection, use and skilled interpretation is based on evidence-based research, world best-practice and our goal to provide you with the very best eye and vision care possible.

David will ask for a photo of the back of your eye using a Fundus Camera and may request a cross-section of your retina (which sits on the inside of the back of your eye ball) using an OCT. He might also check your peripheral vision with a visual fields machine. If David suspects you have issues with your cornea (the front surface of your eye in front of the coloured circle), or that you would benefit from greater precision lenses, he will crank up his much-loved (by him and his patients) DNE technology.

David will ask his team to book you in for your next appointment in line with what particular care you and he have agreed your eyeballs need. With a bit of luck all will be ship shape and we’ll have to cope without your delightful company for another 1-2 years.

Alternatively, David may prescribe a treatment plan and call you back in a few days or months to check it’s working; or schedule a review in twelve months if you have a family history of an eye disease needing a more frequent check-up.

Sometimes David will spot something that needs the specialist expertise of one of his medical colleagues and he’ll pack you off for a play-date with them. This may be with one of our ophthalmologists, your GP or even (on occasion) emergency at Flinders or the RAH.

Then of course there is eyewear! If you’re lucky enough to get to play in our frame or sunglasses selection, David will hand you over to Leah, Kristina or Deb with details of your lens choice, carefully (and very sensibly) leaving the selection of delectable frames to them (you know what boys are like with colour).

Whilst everyone who sits in David’s consulting chair is special, we recognise that sometimes extra care is needed to make you feel at ease, listened to and cared for. Our practice is well equipped for patients in wheel-chairs or walking frames, we are also well experienced in caring for patients with dementia or intellectual disabilities, unusual health conditions and so on. As for kids – with families of our own and full ‘working with children clearance’, all of our team are well practised at dealing with littlies of all ages: David has his set of CareFlight teddies, the special frames and the ability to crawl around the floor to prove it!