Moorfields Eye Hospital Private Clinic

I've just recently had my treatment with Mr Stevens and my sight is already improving dramatically. I just wanted to say how kind and helpful Mr Stevens and his wonderful team are. If you are thinking of having this treatment done, you really couldn't chose a more considerate and knowledgeable doctor.

Firstly, a big thank you to all those who posted reviews here – they were instrumental in my decision to get my eyes corrected, where and with which doctor. And what good decisions they turned out to be!

I had my surgery with Dr Julian Stevens about 4 months ago. Before surgery I was about -5.5 in both eyes.

It all started with a round of phonecalls to the Moorfield doctors’ secretaries. I wanted to go with the one with the longest waiting list – nervous, moi? This turned out to be Dr Stevens. Cross-referenced with this site and with additional recommendations from colleagues, I decided Stevens was the man! On request, his secretary sent me out lots of useful information and based on this I arranged an appointment for assessment (£90).

On 31st March, I went along to the Arthur Steele Unit (about a mile from my home) and had a raft of eye tests with various individuals. This day characterised my whole Moorfields experience – lots of waiting around (bring a good book to your ALL appointments), lots of nice people, not enough seats. I saw Mr Stevens, who was nice and very confident, and he told me that I was basically very bog-standard and that Wavefront Lasik should give me perfect eyesight. He answered all my questions very patiently. I would deffo recommend bringing a list of questions with you to this appointment.

I decided to go for it and took the next available appointment, which due to my living nearby and due to a last minute cancellation, turned out to be 11th April. This was in Moorfields Hospital. Having handed over my two cheques (£2200 sugeon’s fee and £1087 hospital fee) I took my place in the nice 4th floor waiting room along with a few other brave souls. So much waiting around though! Dreadful. Oh well. Famous person in waiting room. Yes! After a long time, the lot of us were taken down in a lift to a grottier waiting room.

Anyway, turns out that because everyone in front of me in the queue opted for valium, I was first up! So I was straight out. I was a little unprepared because I knew others had been in the queue HOURS ahead of me. Some of those peeps were extremely on edge – I was just very nervous indeed. But a brave soul. Anyway, I followed a nice bod to a tiny, tiny operating room. So tiny! And filled with people! Maybe 4 people. It look liked a dentist’s room with lots of fancy equipment. Everyone was in green or white scrubs though, which was a bit disconcerting. So someone asked for my glasses and I took them off. Which again was a little disconcerting because I couldn’t see any thing. I think they forget that not being able to see is sometimes a bit unsettling for us short-sighted types. Well, I gritted my teeth and was guided to an almost hoizontal dentist-type chair.

Well, it was then, as I lay there not being able to see, with an assistant knocking my feet because the room was too small, that I began to laugh. I don’t know why. Just because I was nervous I suppose. I think they were all talking about football, which added to the surrealism. Anyway, the staff, including Mr Stevens, were all very encouraging and very soothing. And I soon settled down and was happy enough.

So then to the procedure! I’m afraid I can’t remember exactly what went on. All I know is that it was quick and it didn’t hurt. Like I say, I was lying on this horizontal chair. And Mr Stevens did the whole holding back the eyelids jobby, which DIDN’T hurt and wasn’t even uncomfortable! This was the bit I was dreading, you see. And I didn’t even feel like I needed to blink – it just felt almost normal. So, explaining every step as he went, Mr Stevens swung me under one machine, which did its thing. Cutting the cornea flap. Locked onto my eyeball I suppose. I think under THIS machine I mainly saw a small red dot of flashing light and everything else black. And a loud clicking noise. Or maybe that was the next one, I don’t know. Anyhoo, all that only seemed to last about 1 minute. Easy! I didn’t smell anything during the procedure, except for a horrendous sulphurous stink! What a honk! Apparently, kids in the children’s ward sometimes let off stinkbombs.

I must say, one of the flaps which had been cut proved quite tricky to lift, so Mr Stevens was bashing about in my eye for quite a while! But it was painless and just a bit odd really. And you must remember, I am a bit of a wimp myself, so it really wasn’t bad.

Anyway, I was then swung under the next machine. This one seemed to last about 5 minutes. If that. Did the same locking onto eye thing. By this stage, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable. It was a weird sensory experience for me. If you have ever been on Space Mountain in Disneyland or EuroDisney it was a bit like that, but without the rollercoaster. Slightly disorientating, strange lights, but mainly blackness. Anyway, it was all over quickly. And then they did that whole closing of the flaps milarky. So from start to finish, my whole active Moorfields experience was maybe, 10 mins, And then…then…I could see! Yes! It was weird. Everything seemed very, very bright (remember those sunglasses!) and very, very foggy. The fog gradually liftsed as the hours passed.

I was taken to a room with Mr Stevens, for a super quick eye test. I can see! Amazing! Then I went upstairs and a nurse talked be though the different drops I would be taking and all about after surgery care. As I left with my partner in a taxi my eyes were beginning to hurt. Ouch! Too bright too. Well, of course I should have loaded my eyes up with the anaesthetic they had given me, but seeing as they had just done some I didn’t think I should. Anyway, if truth be told, I was in pain for the rest of the day. But I’m a trooper.

When I went back to Moorfields the following day, no one else in the waiting room had ANY pain issues. (I think the moral of this story then, is make sure you have enough anaesthetic BEFORE you eye gets too sore to open properly!) Anyway, at this appointment – more waiting! – they checked my eyes and did another eye test – better than 20-20! So off I trotted to enjoy my new eyesight. There followed a few weeks with various eyedrops, and sleeping with eye goggles and limited swimming. But since that first day, I had no discomfort or pain. For a while lights were a bit fuzzy.

Now, four months on, I have just had my last follow-up appointment (more waiting!). But it’s official – everything is groovy.

I had to score ungenerously on customer service, because at each appointment I waited for hours. However…I can’t recommend lasik surgery highly enough. And I can’t recommend Dr Stevens and Moorfields highly enough. I would do it all again in a nanosecond. My eyesight is perfect. It has had a much more profound effect than I thought it would have. I love it. If you want to get this procedure done, go to Moorfields and go to Dr Stevens.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

this is the total for the surgery and hospital charges. Had this done in August and delighted with the results. its very quick and i would highly recommend anyone that can afford this procedure to do it. Julian Stevens put me at ease - i was very nervous......he was professional, reassuring and charming. Its quick, painless and results are instant - i am still in shock Excellent staff and put everyone at ease. I was -7 in each eye and still awake feeling i have had a miracle perfomed...I guess i have.. cannot recommend the surgeon highly enough good luck to all x

Hi - I was wondering if anyone has had ICL treatment at Moorfields? In particular with Mr Maurino. I had my consultation yesterday, which was initially for LASIK. However after the tests Mr Maurino recommended I have ICL treatment. My prescription is -9.5 and -8.5, cornea thickness is good. His recommendation was based on my prescription being on the cusp of LASIK v's ICL plus my age, I'm 28. I would be very grateful if anyone who has had ICL surgery at Moorfields would let me know their experience. Thank you.

Please add me to the Mr. Julian Stevens fan club. He was recommended by a Doctor friend of mine who has been to Mr. Steven's lectures. You may have to wait a few months to see him but it is worth the wait. My eyesight was -7.5 and I had been wearing glasses for 49 years so having this surgery was a major life event for me. He performed my surgery on Friday and I had the post op review yesterday. His Saturday waiting room was full of happy smiling people. Conclusions (1) I was very apprehensive about having this surgery - there is no need to worry. Going to the dentist is much worse. (2) The results are fantastic. I came out of the surgery and was able to sit in the waiting room and do the crossword without glasses. I went home on my own. (3) You are being treated by the best surgeon with the most up to date equipment. If anything does go wrong ( very unlikely) you will have the back-up of the world famous Moorfields eye hospital. (4) It was worth the wait and worth the cost. Don't settle for anyone less than Mr. Stevens.

I have worn glasses for the last 22 years (and I'm only 29!). With a prescription of -7.5 and -8, I just wanted to be able to see a bit better without glasses and was prepared for the fact that after surgery it may not be possible to not need glasses at all. My surgery with Mark Wilkins at Moorfields 3 days ago has given me the sight I was never blessed with at birth. Straight after the op I could already see the difference and after the 'magic 3 hours' later I was already able to see to a standard not too much worse than my glasses. 3 days later and I'm over the moon my eyes are pretty much to how they were without glasses and it was worth every penny! .............................................................................................................. Before deciding to go through with the surgery I took some time to shop around. With such poor sight I appreciated what I had and wasn't about to take chances... Ultralase were the first appointment - I was initially impressed with what they had to say but was put off when I learned the guy taking the Wavefront readings had worked in a clothes store just 2 weeks prior to my appointment. The 'surgeon' had told me information I was later told by the two other companies to be rubbish - namely that Wavefront speeds recovery time because it is customed to your eye and so less cornea needs to be taken off. There is no evidence to suggest this and in fact one company said there might be slightly more taken off, however all companies promote the newer technology because I have been told it lessens some of the side affects of its predecessor such as star-bursts at night. Optimax - I was impressed with the Optician and the surgeon, but again the rest of the staff were all very new. I was not reassured by the fact that the surgeon I had been booked with for the appointment was only in the UK for a few days a month and so the follow-up after care would all be dealt with by others less qualified. That said, if finance is of particular concern to anyone I'd advise leaving it a while after your appointment before booking an op with Optimax because the deals they send on email keep getting better! Moorfields - a work colleague had seen them about something else and thoroughly recommended the hospital. I felt confident and reassured after the appointment with Mark Wilkins and having paid £150 felt that this removes the incentive for a sales pitch at you! ................................................................................................ I won't pretend that the actual procedure was nice. Yes, as people say it is pain free both before and after, discomfort is the worst of it. But I found the whole thing really quite horrible from a psychological point of view. Having said that......... it is all over within 20 minutes and it is very, very worth it!

I went to see Mr Mark Wilkins with my sister for laser treatment as I have worn glasses for far too long and I wanted to be able to see things without my glasses and be able to swim/scuba without contacts. At the end of the very thorough consultation I was told that I had a severely detached retina in my right eye that needed immediate surgical attention and holes/tears in my left retina. I am just posting this message to say that it was only due to Mr Wilkins' thorough examination that I still have my sight. I was told that if I had not gone to the consultation (which I had booked 2/3 months in advance) something would have happened so serious that it would have meant that the chances of losing my sight in my right eye would be very high. This was an absolute shock to both me sister and I since I had only gone in for a laser consultation! My sister was a little apprehensive to begin with that Mr Wilkins was fairly young, however, I wanted to post this message to say that the level of service received was far beyond anything one could imagine. Mr Wilkins delayed seeing his other patients in order to find us the best surgeon available in the hospital. Within 20 minutes I was see by Mr Robert MacLaren who is one of the best surgeons in the country for retinal detachments. I had surgery the next day (18th March) and I'm in recovery at the moment. So, the moral of the story is, look after your eyes, pay to go to a good optician (not Specsavers whom I saw less than 2 months before who said my eyes were fine) and go to Moorfields Eye Hospital!

It is the day after my Wavefront eye surgery with Mr Gartry and I feel 15 years younger! (I'm 30), since that is when I first started wearing glasses. Apart from some minor difficulty in reading very close up and slightly bloodshot eyes (two things I will discuss with Mr Gartry tomorrow morning during my first follow-up consultation), my vision is extremely sharp and crisp. I can read things so small, so far away (I was short-sighted, -2.5 in each eye) It is like wearing the most perfect pair of glasses imaginable and each set of eye drops seems to make my vision even clearer! I cannot believe how quick and easy the whole process was, from the first 90 minute consultation a couple of weeks ago to the final, 10 minute procedure yesterday. Mr Gartry was fantastic during the surgery, calmly talking you through every small step, which made me very reassured and never uncomfortable. It was at worst like being under water with your eyes open for about a minute (something that I could never do) but since you don't feel anything, it felt perfectly normal. Immediately following the surgery, my vision was slightly blurred, but there was no pain or discomfort, just a little feeling of dryness. Luckily, my girlfriend was able to drive me home so I could just close my eyes until we got there and once two full hours had passed since the op. I could put in the first set of eye drops (three different types, one in each eye) and from then on the dryness had never returned. For the next week I will have to put in the drops every 2 hours, which is already proving quite tedious, but I know it is worth it in the long run. The other minor problem has been sleeping with goggles, which is something I have never done before so I was worried I would push them off at night so I did as they advised and taped them to my face with the masking tape they provided. I guess this will be the most annoying part of the whole thing but I suppose a week of uncomfortable sleeping is a small price to pay.

I had Wavefront Lasik treatment at Moorfields with Julian Stevens about five years ago. I went there for a second opinion after having had ordinary Lasik elsewhere and I was very unhappy with the result. I booked a consultation with Mr Stevens and after lots of tests he said I was an ideal candidate for their Wavefront study (Wavefront was new at the time). I had a lot of aberrations in my eyes, meaning the surface was very uneven which is why my vision was rubbish. To cut a long story short, I had Wavefront in one eye to start with and after I got home and had a sleep, I woke up to perfect vision in that eye. It was amazing and it's what should have happened the first time. I went back as soon as possible to have the second eye done, and my vision has been great ever since. I do get some halos around car headlights at night but some people get that naturally and I can't remember noticing if I had them pre-Lasik or not. It doesn't affect my ability to drive at night. In my last eye test they told me I had 20/20 eyesight, although I have the ability to see up to 20/10 with glasses if I wanted them. I declined! It seems strange to remember that I used to have to wear glasses all the time. I am so glad I went to Moorfields, I just wish I'd gone there in the first place, and I would recommend Mr Julian Stevens to anyone.

I hadn’t considered laser surgery until earlier this year when I discovered that NHS hospitals also carried out the operations, albeit on a private basis. I was curious to learn more, so requested further information from Moorfields and carried out additional research online. This site was particularly helpful in coming to a decision and preparing for surgery, so I would also like to share my experiences so far. After my initial research I booked a consultation with Dr Gartry at Moorfields in October. I figured that even if I didn’t go ahead, it would be worth £150 for some expert and impartial advice. I’d agree with some earlier posts that Dr Gartry can appear a little brusque, but he answered all the questions I had preprepared in a straightforward and professional manner. From the tests I underwent that morning he told me that I was suitable for surgery but in no way did I feel that he was encouraging me to do so. My prescription was -2.50/-2.25 with no astig, and he said that a reasonable expectation would be for him to achieve a 90% correction (i.e. to around - .25/-.5). Dr. Gartry has a strong preference for LASIK owing to the rapid visual recovery and good results that he has seen (his biog says he has performed more than 11,000 Lasik ops to date.). I came away from the consultation feeling undecided, but reassured that if I did go ahead, I should be a straightforward case for a surgeon of Dr Garty’s experience. I spent a few days trying to weigh the risks and benefits. On the one hand I could wait a few more years for the technology to improve and the risk of complications to diminish, but having reached my mid-thirties I was also keen to enjoy the potential benefits as soon – and for as long - as possible. A few days later, I decided to book a surgery date, still telling myself that I could always pull out up until a week before (when you have to pay) if I changed my mind. About ten days before surgery I did have some serious doubts and I started to convince myself that the whole thing was a bad idea. Around the same time I received a call from Moorfields to say that the surgery needed to be postponed by two days. Although this was annoying, in a strange way it also calmed me down by giving me two more days to reflect, and from that moment I was surprisingly relaxed leading up to the surgery. I had a 9.30am appointment which allowed just enough time to drop the children at school and get to the hospital, but not too much to brood on the impending surgery. The operation takes place on the 4th floor of Moorfields eye hospital. For an eye hospital, it is not the most straightforward place to navigate (I overhead another patient saying he had difficulty finding the ‘low vision’ unit…), and on arrival at the fourth floor a small printed sign pointed Dr Gartry’s patients to a rather small and dingy waiting room. There was no-one to meet and greet or confirm that this was the right place, but a small cardboard box for unwanted specs hinted that we might be on the right track. Finally a nurse did confirm that we were in the right place and that we could make a cup of tea while we waited. A small thing perhaps, but a little bit of human reassurance 10 mins before a significant op wouldn’t have gone amiss. A few minutes later I was called and taken to a surprisingly small room where the surgeon and laser awaited. Dr Garty was masked but I recognised his eyes and distinctive voice and he greeted me cheerfully. Seconds later I was in the chair with the seat reclining. From this moment everything was clearly and calmly explained to me as we went through the procedure. I found Dr Gartry very calm and reassuring throughout and the whole thing was over very quickly (20 mins max). And while I wouldn’t say the operation was pleasant, it was certainly not painful. I had read enough posts (and even watched a u-tube video of an op) to know what was going on and I think this actually helped a bit. The second eye was slightly more uncomfortable, partly because I knew what was coming and partly (as Dr Garty later explained) because the body uses up most of its adrenalin dealing with the first ‘attack’. In any case the whole thing was over remarkably quickly and before I knew it, I was walking down the corridor (in a mist but seeing ok) to run through the aftercare procedures with a nurse. My partner had barely had time to get to Starbucks and back in the time it took me to have the operation. During the 40 minute drive home the anesthetic wore off and my eyes started streaming and stinging and I had to keep them closed behind dark glasses for most of the journey. That was as bad as it got. Once home my eyes were still light sensitive and sore for a few hours but this improved with every dose of the drops. By evening I could see reasonably well, watch a bit of television and make my way very comfortably around the house. The next morning my sight had sharpened to about 90% as many people describe. I had a bit of dryness, and slight haloing around street lamps at night, but my vision was amazingly clear. I took the tube for a brief follow-up appointment with Dr Garty who confirmed that my eyes were healing well and that I could expect a good final result. I’m due to go back in a month or so. I am now 48 hours post-op and I’d say that my sight is pretty close to what it was with contacts or glasses. I drove this morning with no problems and I’ve been reading/using the computer for short periods quite comfortably. Still a long way to go, but so far the results and lack of serious discomfort are pretty remarkable. My eyes are still slightly sore and dry but I was anticipating far worse. If you’re after a shiny 5 star customer experience then perhaps Moorfields isn’t for you. On the other hand, I had every confidence in Dr Gartry’s surgical ability and the reassurance of being treated in one of the world’s leading eye hospitals should anything go wrong. To me, those were the most important things.