Firms donate slit lamp to homeless clinic

Keeler and Birmingham Optical have donated an £18,000 slit lamp to the Brighton Vision Care for Homeless People (VHCP) centre. 

The gift replaces a 30-year-old model. The new device helps the optometrist to engage the patient with the findings and any treatment pathway.

Nicola Bennett, Keeler clinical product training manager, said: “This slit lamp will help to provide better monitoring, help with referrals and enable the clinician to talk through the findings with the captured images. 

“The data storage will be useful if patients return for further checks. The impact of this enhanced care can be enormous in moving people along the right pathways at the VCHP clinic within this homeless centre. Not being able to see can be a barrier to literacy and provides screening for some of the wider health concerns.”

The slit lamp was manufactured at Keeler’s Windsor laboratory and calibrated on site at the Brighton clinic by the firm’s business development manager, Nick Hamlett (pictured right).

Amanda Higginbotham, chief operating officer at Birmingham Optical, said: “Our joint collaboration to provide the Keeler Digital Symphony slit-lamp and IT requirements shows the strength of our partnership to support such a worthy charity.”

VCHP is searching for volunteers across its clinics: contact helen.harms@vchp.org.uk