Patient Information for Eye Care and Surgery in Sydney

How to Prepare for a Consultation

What to Bring

Help us plan the best treatment regimen by bringing:

• Referral letter
• List of medications taken
• List of medical conditions and allergies
• Glasses
• Records of prior eye surgeries or treatments

What to expect at Your Consultation

After checking in at reception, our highly trained orthoptists and registered nurses will take a detailed medical history, check your vision, your intraocular pressures, and dilate your pupils. Pupil dilation is needed to allow the treating ophthalmologist to thoroughly examine the retina. 

Once your pupils are dilated, the nursing staff and orthoptists will perform standard diagnostic testing and ocular imaging before you see the ophthalmologist. Based on the ocular findings, the ophthalmologist may recommend any additional testing.

After your appointment, your vision may remain blurred from the dilating eye drops for anywhere up to 24 hours.

New Patients

Expect to spend around 2-3 hours at our clinic and you will not be able to drive for several hours after leaving. 

How to Prepare for Day Surgery

Booking In

Please complete the Pre-Operative Assessment Form prior to your admission as soon as possible. A member of staff will contact you a few days prior to surgery to confirm your admission and other instructions relating to your surgery. You are welcome to ask as many questions as you like.

What to Bring

What to bring with you on the day:

• Admission and consent form fully completed
• Private health fund card
• Pension card
• Medicare card
• All paperwork given to you for your admission, completed or not
• A list of all your medications including those that only need to be taken occasionally or bring them all with you
• A list of all your allergies (if any). Include allergies to medications, food, tapes etc.
• Any test results relating to your procedure

What to expect at Your Day Surgery Procedure

Upon your arrival, our staff will arrange your admission and ensure that your documentation and paperwork is completed.

You will then be escorted to the pre-admission room where the admissions nurse will check your vital signs and obtain a brief medical history from you. The nurse will then administer eye drops into the eye in preparation for surgery. You will then be given a gown to put over your normal clothes and some booties and a hat to wear.

Before the procedure, you will have a consultation with the anaesthetist and discuss anything significant in your past medical history. This is to ensure that your general health is adequate for the procedure you are about to have.

You will then be taken into the theatre area where you will be prepared for surgery. The operation will be performed under a local anaesthetic that is injected into the area around your eye. To ensure maximum comfort you will be given some anaesthetic or sedation under the supervision of the anaesthetist and the anaesthetic nurse. This will make you drowsy and enable the eye to be anaesthetised comfortably.

Costs

A full understanding of the costs of your day surgery is important. An Informed Financial Consent is provided to you in writing and discussed either in person or over the phone. This is only provided after a consultation with one of our surgeons.

• Your day surgery costs include the use of the operating theatre, a day-stay accommodation fee and includes commonly used drugs and dressings
• If you have Private Health Insurance, we will claim the day surgery costs directly from your health fund on your behalf
• If you have an excess or a gap with your level of cover, this will need to be paid on admission
• If you have extras cover, limited private hospital cover or you do not have private health insurance, you will be informed of the cost relating to your day surgery hospital fees. This is payable on the day of your procedure
• The surgeon’s fee is to be paid on the day of your procedure
• There may be an assistant account and this is only payable if you do not hold Medicare or Private Health Insurance
• The anaesthetist account is billed separately to Sydney Retina Clinic & Day Surgery. It will be provided to you directly by the anaesthetist

For further information about appointments, procedures or what to expect during your visit, call 02 9221 3755, and our team will be happy to assist you.