kerataconus and hiv

[kvg1210]

Hi can you please help - if a person has recently been diagnosed with hiv and also has kerataconus - can they get help with payment for lenses if they have just returned to work after 5 months off?

[Andrew MacLean]

I think that this may depend on where the person with hiv and KC gets his or her lenses.

In principle everybody in the United Kingdom with keratoconus can get help with the cost of their contact lenses. The NHS pays for the full cost of each contact lens except for the first £52.50. that is to say that, even if the lenses prescribed by the optometrist cost £1000 each, the patient pays only £52.50 per lens. Then, if there is a change in prescription within one calendar year, the next lens is dispensed free.

So far as I am aware, the only exception to this rule is if the lenses are dispensed by an optometrist who is not working under contract to the hospital. My own lenses in Aberdeen were dispensed by a high street optometrist who was contracted to the Eye Infirmary, and since I moved to Glasgow my lenses have been dispensed by the hospital's own optometry clinic.

Every good wish.

Andrew