"Dissatisfied with the level of testing and time taken"

I had an Orthoptics review appointment for my two children recently in Causeway hospital Coleraine one after the other. Each appointment is allocated 20 minutes per child but my two children were both tested and finished within 15 minutes.

The Orthoptist was efficient in the test methods, but I felt that not enough time or patience was given for a young child to guess pictures to deduce if their vision has changed. I had to take the children out of school and organise for granny to come to look after the baby, so was dissatisfied with the level of testing and time taken on the children.

The Orthoptist also wanted to discharge my son with no satisfactory discussion around the clinical reasoning for this. It was stated that children around 7-8 are discharged and go to an optician, but my son is not yet that age. This came out of the blue as it has never been discussed before and so I would have appreciated further clarification around the decision making process.

I appreciate there are demands on the service but felt this encounter was not of the standard I had experienced before. I have always been happy with the service provided in the past so was disappointed.