Specsavers gives free eye exams to 23,574 NZ kids in 6 months

Since the Specsavers ‘Kids Go Free’ health initiative launched six months ago, 23,574 New Zealand children have received a free comprehensive eye examination, equating to a $NZ1.4 million investment in their eye health.The permanent Kids Go Free offer enables all New Zealanders under the age of 16 to have their eyes tested for free at any Specsavers store throughout the country as often as required. According to the 2013 Census, a total of 930,000 New Zealanders are eligible, which means more than 900,000 children are yet to take up the offer.Mr Brendan Thompson, Specsavers NZ retail director, said on 26 January: It is wonderful to see that parents have taken advantage of our Kids Go Free offer and will now include eye tests as an important, regular health check for their children. With more than 23,000 children already through the doors in six months, it is clear that there is high dand, which is why we decided to make Kids Go Free a permanent offer. However, there’s still a potential 900,000 children that may have undiagnosed eye-health issues and haven’t yet taken up the comprehensive eye examination offer. Now is the time to book an eye examination before the new school year begins. A recent survey carried out by Specsavers revealed that almost half of New Zealand parents have not taken their child or children to have their eyes tested at an optometrist. The main reason for that was that children’s eyes were tested at school (46 per cent), followed by parents not knowing that children should have a comprehensive eye examination (45 per cent). We’ve seen peaks in children’s eye examination bookings during the schools holidays and we are looking forward to being able to carry out even more eye examinations on Kiwi kids during 2016, Mr Thompson said.Parents can request an appointment for their child at any of the 51 Specsavers stores by going to www.specsavers.co.nz or phoning their local store.