Ultralase is a

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

company based in the Leeds, England, it specialises in vision correction through laser

eye surgery Eye surgery, also known as ophthalmic or ocular surgery, is surgery performed on the eye or its adnexa, by an ophthalmologist or sometimes, an optometrist. Eye surgery is synonymous with ophthalmology. The eye is a very fragile organ, and requ ...

Overview and history

Established in 1991 by US based ophthalmologist Claus Fichte, optometrist Andrew Bell and business man Christopher Neave, Ultralase were the first to introduce a national network of

laser eye surgery Eye surgery, also known as ophthalmic or ocular surgery, is surgery performed on the eye or its adnexa, by an ophthalmologist or sometimes, an optometrist. Eye surgery is synonymous with ophthalmology. The eye is a very fragile organ, and requ ...

clinics in the UK. Following the success of the world's first

refractive surgery Refractive eye surgery is optional eye surgery used to improve the refractive state of the eye and decrease or eliminate dependency on glasses or contact lenses. This can include various methods of surgical remodeling of the cornea (keratomileu ...

clinic, opened by US-based investors in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

(1989), the UK's first ever laser eye surgery clinic was opened at

Clatterbridge Clatterbridge is a hamlet (place), hamlet on the Wirral Peninsula, in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is to the south-west of Bebington and close to the M53 motorway. Clatterbridge is also the name of Clatterbridge (w ...

hospital, Wirral in January 1991. This clinic was the first to perform laser eye surgery in the UK, and expanded to become the Ultralase network. Ultralase was purchased by 3i following the £175 million purchase from Corporacion Dermoestetica in January 2008, who had bought the business in May 2005 for £29 million. After going into administration, in 2013 Ultralase was acquired by Optimax founder and CEO Russell Ambrose for £10 million. Ultralase is currently part of the Optimax group of companies.

Concerns raised in parliament

Dr.

Ashok Kumar Kumudlal Ganguly (13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), better known by his stage name Ashok Kumar and also by Dadamoni, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema and who was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He ...

, a British Labour Party politician, made a

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...

on 4 February 2004 concerning laser eye surgery and mentioning Ultralase in the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

Laser eye surgery was developed by the ophthalmologist Dr. Steven Trokel in 1987, and first used on a patient in Germany in 1988. The first laser eye treatment clinic using Dr. Trokel's laser was founded by US-based investors in Toronto in 1989. Following the success of the US operation, the first UK clinic was opened at Clatterbridge hospital, in Wirral, in January 1991. It grew into a string of clinics now known as Ultralase, one of Britain's foremost laser eye treatment providers.

Negligence claims involving laser eye surgery against doctors belonging to the Medical Defence Union have more than doubled in the past six years. The Medical Defence Union is the largest insurer for UK doctors. It believes that, while some of the claims were for faulty surgery, many more centred on patients' unrealistic expectations about what could be achieved. Recent figures released by the union show that claims over laser eye surgery have increased by 166 per cent. in six years and now account for a third of all ophthalmology claims. The MDU has increased its subscription rates for laser eye surgeons and advised them on how to minimise the risk of a claim.

Controversy

When Russell Ambrose acquired Ultralase, its existing patients discovered that Ambrose would not honour their lifetime aftercare guaranteed on purchase. As a result of an investigation by BBC Watchdog, broadcast on 8 October 2015, in response to the negative publicity, Ambrose agreed to reinstate their aftercare.

Services

Ultralase provides laser and lens implant eye surgery.

References

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External links