Where should you have laser eye surgery?

So you are keen to have your eyesight corrected with laser eye surgery, but you don’t live in one of the four major cities? Not sure where to go or which clinic to choose?  Here are a few things to consider when choosing which laser vision correction clinic to go to.

Where can I have laser eye surgery?

Laser vision correction surgery is only performed in four of the major centres of New Zealand; Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Hamilton.

Some of these practices do have satellite clinics or offices in other cities. These satellite clinics are medical rooms where you can have your suitability or follow-up appointments, but you can’t have your surgery there. For example, the Wellington Eye Centre does all its surgery in Wellington, but we have satellite clinics in Napier and Nelson. So you might be able to have your initial appointment with us closer to home, but you will still need to travel to Wellington for the surgery itself.

What happens when you live outside one of these centres?
How might that affect your post-surgical care and the associated costs?

As well as considering the cost of travel, here are a few other things to think about when choosing which laser vision correction clinic to go to.

What laser vision correction procedures do they offer?

Most of the New Zealand based laser vision correction clinics offer similar services. All clinics offer variations of LASIK and PRK. Some of the clinics also offer a procedure called SMILE®.

As of July 2022, SMILE was only available at the Wellington Eye Centre, Fendalton Eye Clinic in Christchurch, and the three clinics in Auckland – Auckland Eye, re:Vision and the Eye Institute.

SMILE currently only corrects certain amounts of myopia (short-sightedness) and astigmatism. It can’t yet correct hyperopia (long-sightedness) or very low levels of myopia. If you want to know if your prescription might be suitable for SMILE, please email us your most recent spectacle prescription. Or book in for a free laser vision correction suitability assessment.

If your prescription seems to be suitable, we would strongly recommend you choose a surgeon and a clinic that can offer you the option of SMILE. Even if you choose not to have SMILE in the end, it is good to have the choice. It is the latest technology available in laser vision correction surgery and offers some significant benefits over LASIK to those who are suitable.

We are also proud to be the first in New Zealand to have the VISUMAX® 800, offering the very latest in technology from Carl Zeiss Meditec.

You can learn more about SMILE in this blog.

How long will you need to be away from home?

If your surgery is going to be done outside of your home town, how long do you need to stay in that city?

This can depend on which procedure you are having, how far you are travelling and which clinic you are attending. At the Wellington Eye Centre we recommend you stay in Wellington for two nights (sometimes just one night if you have already had your medical assessment appointment with us). This recommendation is the same whether or not you are having LASIK, SMILE, PRK or Corneal Collagen Cross-Linking.

If you are flying to Wellington for your treatment we strongly recommend that you book a flexi fare return flight. It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally we may need you to stay an extra night to keep a closer eye on your post-surgical recovery.

How much will accommodation cost?

Some clinics will fully or partially cover your accommodation for one or two nights. Check to see what the clinic closest to you offers.

At the Wellington Eye Centre, for most of our out-of-town patients, we offer up to two nights of accommodation at the Naumi Hotel for $100, or $50 per night. The Naumi is just one block from our Cuba Street based clinic. However, if you would rather stay at another local motel or hotel, we may subsidise that for you instead. Some of our patients take this opportunity to bring the whole family down and they need a bit more space.

If you are coming from the Hawke’s Bay area, or you live more than a 1-hour drive from Wellington, we offer one night of accommodation at a subsdised rate.

This offer isn’t available if you choose to take advantage of the 12 months interest free payment with GEM finance or Q Card to pay for your procedure.

What are your travel options?

For most people, it makes sense to go to the clinic that is closest to them. For example, if you live in Tauranga you are most likely going to drive to the Hamilton based clinic. But sometimes you might prefer to travel a little further away…. Maybe you have regular work trips to Wellington or family in Auckland. Sometimes it makes sense (or it is more fun) to combine your surgery with other activities.

The biggest benefit of having surgery closer to home is if you have any unexpected issues following your laser vision correction surgery, then you can get back to the surgeon easier. Complications are rare, but if it does happen, you may need to return to the surgeon and the city where you had the surgery. So keep that in the back of your mind when making plans.

Driving after surgery

The visual recovery after laser eye surgery is different for everyone and you should not plan to drive home the day after your surgery. This means you should either have a support person with you who can drive you both home, catch alternative transportation or extend your stay!

What follow-up care will I have?

Most New Zealand based clinics will see you the day after your surgery. After that day one appointment, you are likely to be required to have follow-up appointments at specific intervals.

Each clinic has different recommendations as to how often you need to have follow-ups. For most surgical patients at the Wellington Eye Centre, the standard follow-up appointments are one week, one month, three months and six months after your surgery. You can have all these appointments with us in Wellington at our main clinic on Cuba Street.

If getting to Wellington for your follow-up appointments is inconvenient, you can see your own local Optometrist. The Optometry community of New Zealand is highly skilled and provides our patients with fantastic post-surgical care.

If you see your local Optometrist, they will provide us with regular reports outlining your progress and how you are recovering. The cost of those appointments is invoiced to us at the Wellington Eye Centre. If an issue pops up with your eyes, you can still come and see us in Wellington. And in those situations, we might also be able to see you at our Napier or Nelson satellite clinics.

If you have an after-hours emergency, you need only call Dr Logan on the emergency phone number provided in your post-surgical information pack.

Want to consider Laser Eye Surgery, but don’t want to commit to travelling yet?

If you want to get a bit more of an idea of how suitable you might be for laser vision correction, without travelling first, we would recommend you have your eyes tested by your local Optometrist.

At the Wellington Eye Centre we always want to see a recent Optometrist report before you come to Wellington. If you haven’t been to your Optometrist recently then you will need to make an appointment. We have this pre-assessment form which they can fill out. The information on this form will help us get a better idea of how suitable you might be, and it might make it easier for you to decide if you want to travel for the next step in the assessment.

We’ll even cover the cost if you are suitable and go ahead with surgery!

Reasons to choose Wellington that aren’t surgically based?

If you want to combine your travel for laser vision correction with a mini-break in Wellington, well we are all for that! The team at the Wellington Eye Centre love our city, and we can list endless restaurants and cafes for you to visit, we are also big fans of the local theatre and art scenes too! We are so proud of our home town and all the fun things to see and do in Wellington!

If you are interested in having laser eye surgery then give us a call on 0800 733 327. Or fill out the book a free assessment and someone from our team will get back to you with more information. We’d love to hear from you!

SMILE®and VISUMAX® are registered trademarks of Carl Zeiss Meditec.