The Star: February 18, 2021

Thursday February 18 2021 The Star
spent a lifetime as an optician
17
You have spent considerable
time overseas helping
communities in Cambodia
and the Cook Islands. Were
you inspired by a Kiwi who
focused on restoring eyesight
in Australia and many other
countries, Fred Hollows?
No, I was always interested in
other stuff. I never met Fred. He
died too soon (in 1993, at 63 of
cancer in Sydney). I know a lot
of the guys in the Fred Hollows
Foundation. Fred made his mark
in Australia, great guy.
A meeting with Christchurch
physician Dr William Grut
led to your involvement with
Rose Charities and a heartwarming
association with
Cambodia didn’t it?
We started a clinic in Phnom
Penh from scratch 20 years ago
and now it’s the biggest eye clinic
in Cambodia. We took up old
gear to get them started. We went
up once or twice a year, raised
money for them and now they’re
completely self-supporting. It
was a real buzz to see the thing
growing.
Dr Grut reached out because
he knew you had already worked
overseas in disadvantaged
communities hadn’t you?
In 1982 or ‘83 I went to Tonga
and then I went to the Cook
Islands in 1986. I’ve been going to
the Cook Islands ever since then.
NZ Aid (New Zealand Agency
for International Development)
has an eye team, there’s about
eight of us. I go to the outer
islands, gather the pathology
and bring it to Rarotonga. They
do a big diabetic screening
programme up there. There’s also
an orthopaedic team, a dental
team, a psych team. They go up
for two or three weeks because
Cook Islanders have got a New
Zealand passport and what do
they do? We used to send lovely
mama down to Auckland, give
her an appointment to go to
the hospital. She’d go down to
the family and family is more
important than her eyes and
she’d spend all her time looking
after all the kids and everything
and always missed the
appointments. Then we decided
we were going up there.
On one of your trips to
Rarotonga in 2019 you had your
own eye issue didn’t you?
I got on the plane and I thought
something’s wrong, my sight was
blurred and I knew I was having
a detached retina. The retina just
peeled off and I was trapped on a
four-hour flight. When I looked
out the window with my good
(right) eye covered I could see
things but there was a distinct
black edge with an orange border
in that nasal quadrant.
You made it home to
Christchurch and soon realised
what it was like to be a patient
rather than a practitioner didn’t
you?
Jim Borthwick spent two hours
reattaching my retina, he saved
my sight. But you have to lie on
your side for 10 days while it sort
of sealed itself. I was the worst
patient in the world. You could
only get up for five minutes to get
a cup of tea, a sandwich or to go
to the loo.
Still, it could have been worse.
The procedure to remedy a
detached retina is certainly
more user-friendly these days
isn’t it?
The surgery has improved out
of this world. In the old days
they used to squeeze your eyeball
and they’d put a piece of string
around it and tighten it down.
Is there still a future for
independent optometrists since
the advent of Specsavers and
OPSM?
Very definitely but we’ve
certainly lost a huge chunk of
the market. They can bring
10,000 frames in from China,
we can’t compete on price. But
independent optometrists are still
going very well in Christchurch
because – and I don’t want to be
disparaging – they (retail chain
optometrists) employ young
optometrists who are just out
of university. I get two or three
people a week who say ‘I’m not
going on there again’. They’re
all good people and they’re very
well-trained but they don’t have
the rapport with people who are
50, 60, 70, 80 or 90. For the last
couple of years I’ve been told:
‘Don’t you dare retire John. My
doctor’s retired and my dentist’s
retired.’ But the time has come.
You tried to find a buyer for
Shirley Optometrists, though
without success . . .
There are two or three practices
run by older people like me
who’ve managed to get someone
to take over. I’ve rung everybody,
they just don’t want it. The gear is
going into a container tomorrow
(Friday). Some of it will go Trade
Me. I’ll probably take the frames
up to the islands.
Would you recommend the
profession to a prospective
optometrist today?
It’s been a great profession but
the trouble is the young ones,
INSIGHT: John Veale assessing the vision of an inhabitant
on Palmerston Island, a tiny coral atoll in the Cook Islands,
in 2011.
and I don’t want to sound like
I’m griping about them, but they
don’t want to do the hard stuff.
They want to go and work for
Specsavers and make a hundred
grand. They won’t do home visits.
That’s what I’m probably going to
do when I’m out of here. If Mrs
Smith is bedridden I’ll go and
test her eyes at home. The young
ones are not allowed to do it.
Specsavers says there’s no money
in that, we can see three people
in the time it takes you to drive to
Halswell to see Mrs Smith.
What other plans do you have
for your retirement?
I’ll be doing two clinics
a month at the Low Vision
Clinic at Burwood Hospital
and Southern Eye Specialists. I
started the (low vision) service
there in 1986. Low vision is when
you’ve done everything but you’re
not seeing as sharp as you’d like
to see. Low vision has really been
neglected in the country and I’m
still pushing away.
To that end you’re trying to
get a mobile service set up aren’t
you?
The aim is to start a mobile
service. It would screen people
for diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes
is going like this (he points
upwards). Why would you
want to go to hospital to get a
photograph taken of the back of
the eye which takes five minutes?
You could put the machine
in a van, you take it to the
supermarket and it’s done.
You’ve struck some obstacles
with this project haven’t you?
When I wanted to do the
mobile clinic I went up to see
them (Ministry of Health
officials) about four or five years
ago. They’re shockers. I sent
email, after email after email
with ideas to save them money.
They never replied to any of my
emails. I finally got up there,
I gave them my business plan
and they came back to me two
weeks later and told me ‘We’ve
got no money’. I wanted about
$300,000 for the mobile clinics,
to save thousands. These guys
are on $250,000 a year, sitting
on their bums having cups of tea
and coffee and going to meetings.
They’re bastards in Wellington. It
doesn’t change from government
to government does it?
So the Government could
clearly do more?
In England you get a free
examination on the National
Health Service every two years.
It’s the same in Australia. The
association (New Zealand
Association of Optometrists) has
tried to get the Government to
do that but no. So that leads to
problems. People leave it too late
and they’ve got an eye condition
which is harder to fix.
How is your eyesight faring
these days?
My right eye is still perfect,
my left is a little bit sticky. I’ve
had three surgeries on it for
two detached retinas and
cataracts.
I see the screensaver on your
mobile phone is of Aoraki Mt
Cook. Why did you choose that
image?
In 1980 a mate of mine (Phil
James) came back from his OE
and we started tramping. We
decided to tramp all the possible
passes from east to west (on
the South Island). We did the
Graham Saddle (in the Aoraki/
Mt Cook National Park and then
we thought ‘We better climb
Mt Cook hadn’t we?’ So we did.
We went to The Hermitage, had
a beer and we did a GT (grand
traverse) up the south-west face,
and back down again.
Your passion for mountain
climbing and trekking didn’t
peak at that point did it?
I’ve climbed more than 10
mountains in New Zealand more
than 3000m feet. I’ve also done
Kilimanjaro (Tanzania) and the
highest mountain in Europe:
Mt Elbrus (5642m) in Russia.
We also went to base camp
on the Nepalese side. I didn’t
want to climb Mt Everest so we
climbed Kala Patthar, right up
the Khumbu at the ice fall. We
walked the Queen Charlotte
Track the other day and I limped
away. I need a new hip. I’m doing
a tramp in the Wairarapa in
April. I’ll just take a lot of pills, I
don’t think I’ll have the hip fixed
by then.
Put yourself in a corner.
Not financially, of course.
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