Chris Harrop MCOptom
Professional Services Manager in a community multiple
Current job role
"I work for a small independent group. I'm the clinical lead in my practice and the Professional Services Manager for six practices overall. We specialise in a range of additional patient services, including orthokeratology, laser treatment, sports vision and contact lenses.
I carry out eye examinations three and a half days a week and spend one day as clinical lead and support the team in my practice, I decide on training needs for them and have an overview of the training needs for all the optometrists in the group. I have responsibility for the technical aspects and equipment needs for the business. I also spend some of my time helping practices and mangers with clinical governance and Quality in Optometry procedures.
We see a lot of patients with more complicated needs. GPs recommend us and doctors at the eye hospital know us too as we’ve been to the hospital to build relationships with ophthalmologists by observing their clinics. We also work with ophthalmologists on private work, for example cataract post-operative appointments.
I work closely with another optometrist as part of a small professional services team and also a contact lens and dry eye/refractive surgery manager. I also meet once a month on a web-based meeting with the three other clinical leads from other practices and go through clinical aspects of our work. Four optometrists report to me directly, and I support all 14 optometrists in the group as well as a small team of specialist locums."
Career progression and opportunities
"I've spent my entire professional life with my current employer. I did my pre-registration training with them. With time and experience I built confidence and took on more job diversity and responsibility, after a few years purely devoted to practising as an optometrist.
We conduct sports screening and we have ties with a local football team and with the cricket and golf clubs. We sponsor them and conduct eye examinations for their players. It only needs someone with interest in sport to get this sort of initiative started and we've begun to see a wider range of patients, for example, a young professional tennis player who had an accident with a tennis ball which hit him in the eye and who needed a specialist hand painted contact lens to cover a dilated pupil.
We also see many keratoconic patients, and other patients who have more concerns over the health of their eyes. We have OCT and ultra-wide field retinal imaging equipment in practice, we do direct cataract referral and we refine IOP checks for glaucoma patients. We're finding patients seek us out because we spend considerable time with them.
We've all done MECS training, though MECS hasn’t started here yet, and I'm currently taking a course in glaucoma."
Making a difference
"I enjoy what I find to be a good balance of three and a half days testing and my professional services and clinical lead roles the rest of the week.
I feel I'm making a difference to patients and having some influence on the clinical aspects of the company, making the teams successful and efficient.
I also enjoy the sheer variety of the job."
