When Ian Jones, partner at Davies and Jones Optometrists graduated from Aston University in 1983 his ambition for better eye-care for all was to set him on a path that would lead him to have more influence than he could have imagined.

C
LEAR VISION

Please tell us about yourself
I graduated from Aston University in 1983 (Honours Degree) and passed my professional exams (Diploma Optometry) in 1984 after a year's 'pre-registration' training in Bargoed and Church Village. From 1988 until 1997 I worked in Merthyr Tydfil and joined LDJ and DE Davies Opticians on the invitation of Lionel Davies who I met through the professional health body, The Local Optical Committee, during the preceding few years.

In 2003 I succeeded David Davies and Davies and Jones Optometrists was born. In between I have continued my 'repesentative' career, being first Secretary and then Chairman of what became the South East Wales Optometric Committee. I now Chair the Welsh Government Optometric Committee and work with Cardiff University Welsh Post Graduate Optometric Centre and the national Local Optometric Committee Support Unit in London. I continue to work to improve local services with Cwm Taf Local Health Board.



When was the business established?
The business was begun by Eric Davies in the 1950s in Hannah Street in Porth. The 'headquarters' still exists to this day in the old Thomas and Evans building. This is where we have our own workshop producing our customers' spectacles, using the latest computerised tracing equipment and sometimes finishing the specs by hand, especially the rimless frames which require special techniques.

Lionel and his brother graduated from Cardiff University in the 1970s and joined their father (and mother who ran reception, was chief admin officer, chief factotum and still works for the company even in her eighties!) developing the group until it reached the six practices of which it consists in 1984. LDJ and DE Davies became First Light Optical and trades under the name Davies and Jones Optometrists in September 2003 when I succeeded David Davies.

How many practices do you have?
The six practices are supported by thirty four employees who work extremely hard to provide the sort of care and attention that they would expect to be given themselves. Through this they have earned the coveted Investors in People award for the business that was put in place mainly by Andrew Hobby, our Treorchy and Treherbert practice manager.

Ferndale and Dinas Powys practices are satellites that are run by Joanna Wilson and Simon Jones, optometrists who live locally, as do all our staff, and Porth is now run by Owain Mealing whose family is well known in the Rhondda.

Talbot Green is managed by Melissa Houlker who has raised the bar in service delivery (and expectation!) since arriving from the multiple sector in 2005. Melissa is our Registered Dispensing Optician and leads the styling, fitting and buying process and is supported in turn by Lisa Elson and Diane Foale in Porth and Treorchy respectively.

What sets you apart as optometrists from others in your field?
Davies and Jones has striven to be a quality independent optometrist that hasn't chased the retail model but rather has looked at the whole process of providing family eye-care for the 21st century. Through training and education of every team member, we've endeavoured to make each part of the process a valuable part of the whole, whether this involves patient contact at the time of making the appointment, just walking through the door, examining the eyes and offering guidance and advice.

In taking part in professional education and training, including providing ongoing professional development inhouse through Peer Review, or funding staff training to further their careers and through working with professional committees and Cardiff University, the Company delights in innovating care pathways in community eye-care such as the purchase of an OCT instrument which allows three dimensional modelling of lesions within the retina and a specialised scanner, an Optomap, one of only four in locations in Wales.

We can provide stereo optic nerve photography which is used to help manage those who have or may have glaucoma and run specialised low vision clinics through the members of our team who provide the Welsh Government's Welsh Eye Health Initiative Low Vision Aid scheme. All our Optometrists are WG's Primary Eyecare Acute Referral Service accredited, providing emergency eye-care in community settings. We can provide Orthokeratology, a process of reshaping the cornea not unlike the use of laser to correct short sight, but using contact lenses instead.

What do you do to relax when you're not working?
I've been a cyclist since I was five years old, although I seem to come off more these days than when I started. I've been a long distance road cyclist, lycraclad skin and bones covered in flies and dying of thirst and I'm now a mud splattered and broken-boned off road single tracker with a season ticket carpark pass for the Afan Argoed complex.

I seem to collect every article that keeps me safe and warm up mountains while I indulge my new passion for extreme walking throughout Wales, especially the Beacons and Snowdonia. Looking after the house and my wife are my particular passions. Photography covers them all and I'd love to have more time to be able to sit, write and maybe publish a book on Wales as I see it. One day perhaps.

What is your long-term vision for the business?

There is a fine line between being in a groove and getting in a rut and by bringing in new blood by working with trainees, having regular sessions, formal and informal, with staff and listening to comments from all our stakeholders and most importantly our patients, we intend to move the eye-care process beyond being seen as purveyors of spectacles and contact lenses to an area of all round eye-care.

This will take D&J beyond a simple retail experience, although that will remain a strong part of the structure: there is, after all, satisfaction in helping people choose an excellent product with really good lenses and providing a great look with great vision.

Davies and Jones Optometrists

To make an appointment please
telephone one of the practices below:

Ferndale 01443 730214
Porth 01443 682284
Talbot Green 01443 223124
Treorchy 01443 773879
Treherbert 01443 775899
Dinas Powys 029 2051 4089

www.daviesandjonesoptometrists.co.uk
 
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