Learn more about the City Sight clinic with Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein • City, University of London

President, Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein, visits the City Sight optometry clinic at Northampton Square Campus for a tour with staff and students and to receive a comprehensive eye examination.

By Mr Shamim Quadir (Senior Communications Officer), Published Thursday, 9^th February 2023

City Sight is City, University of London’s teaching optometry clinic located at the heart of our Northampton Square campus.

The clinic provides a wide range of eye health and vision services to our students, staff, the general public, businesses and professionals with specialist visual requirements.

City Sight‘s student training clinics are delivered completely free of charge to the public. These are where our third-year optometry students deliver comprehensive eye examinations and contact lens fittings to patients under the direct supervision of experienced teaching optometrists.

City Sight’s dispensing clinic also provides a wide range of spectacles and contact lenses to its patients at competitive prices. Further clinics at City Sight include general clinics providing free NHS examinations for those eligible, paediatric clinics, and clinics for members of the London Fire Service.

Watch City’s President, Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein, talk about the importance of City Sight to the health of the City community and education of our optometry students:

Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein’s message at City Sight 1:28

President visits

Last term, Professor Finkelstein visited City Sight for a tour of the facilities and to engage in discussion with staff and students. He later returned during the student clinics for his eye examination, and to speak with a recent graduate of City’s BSc Optometry course, Akshay Shah.

Ahalya Subramanian with Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein at City Sight — Professor Finkelstein with City Sight staff and Associate Professor of Optometry, Dr Ahalya Subramanian (centre).

Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein at City Sight with Sunny Wadhawan and Roshni Samra — Professor Finkelstein in discussion with Clinic Support Technician, Sunita Wadhawan (left) and Head of Clinic Services at City Sight, Roshni Samra (right).

Tour of City Sight

The President’s tour of City Sight included demonstrations of: its wide array of consulting rooms, with explanations of how each type of clinic is delivered; the state-of-the-art equipment that is used to assess patients for various aspects of vision, eye and general health; how the spectacle dispensing function of City Sight works.

Teaching optometrist speaking to Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein at City Sight — City Sight’s primary care clinical lead, Anisha Desai, and Professor Finkelstein. Discussing the logistics of delivering student training clinics.

Anthony Finkelstein walking through City Sight dispensing lab, masked students in background. — Professor Finkelstein dropping in on students in the dispensing lab, where they are being observed creating spectacles according to prescriptions issued at the clinic.

A comprehensive eye examination

At his eye examination, Professor Finkelstein experienced first-hand some of the state-of-the-art equipment the clinic employs. This included the Humphrey Field Analyzer 3 used to assess the patient's visual fields to detect and monitor vision loss caused by diseases such as glaucoma. If detected early, these can be treated and sight saved.

Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein having his visual fields tested at City Sight — Pre-reg optometrist, Akshay Shah, using a Humphrey Field Analyzer 3 to assess Professor Finkelstein’s visual fields.

Recently installed at City Sight, Professor Finkelstein’s eye health was also examined with the Optos Optomap retinal imaging device.

Optomap is the only technology of its kind to image approximately 80% of the retina (inside lining of the eye) at a time, and is optimally placed to detect the early signs of eye conditions such as retinal tears, detachments, macular degeneration and glaucoma, in addition to non-eye diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

This technology enables City Sight optometrists to detect, monitor, or make patient referrals to other services for eye and general health conditions.

Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein being tested on the Optomap device at City Sight — Pre-reg optometrist, Akshay Shah, using the Optomap device to visualise and assess the health of Professor Finkelstein’s retinas, one eye at a time.

Prof Sir Anthony Finkelstein having eyes examined by a teaching optometrist — Teaching optometrist, Nikal Jeyakumar, using a slit lamp device to manually check for signs relating to Professor Finkelstein’s eye health.

Prof Sir Anthony Finkelstein having his near vision tested with a chart — Nikal Jeyakumar assessing Professor Finkelstein’s near acuity (sharpness of vision) with his previous spectacles.

After his eye examination, Professor Finkelstein spoke with pre-registration optometrist, Akshay Shah, to get an idea of Akshay’s optometry student journey at City.

Akshay is currently a pre-registration optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, and completed his BSc in Optometry at City earlier in the year, including his clinical training at City Sight.

He shared with the President how he got into optometry, how City Sight has supported his development, and some of the challenges he experienced, such as training during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Watch a recording of their conversation below:

Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein in conversation with pre-registration optometrist, Akshay Shah 4:11

Please also read Akshay’s recent interview with Optometry Today about how he obtained his pre-registration placement at Moorfield’s Eye Hospital with support from City.

Operating during the pandemic

As optometry services were considered essential by UK Government, City Sight was open during the COVID-19 pandemic, including periods of lockdown. This meant that City Sight staff and students undertook a variety of measures to operate safely, including the utilisation of PPE (personal protective equipment), and enhanced hygiene protocols.

Student cleaning optometry equipment at City Sight during the pandemic (Nov 2020) — City optometry student disinfecting spectacle trial frames during the pandemic (November 2020)

City Sight receptionist masked and working behind a perspex screen during the pandemic (Nov 2020) — Screens implemented at City Sight reception desk during the pandemic (November 2020)

City Sight tutor and student in ppe at a computer during the pandemic (Nov 2020) — Students in full PPE at City Sight (November 2020)

Book an appointment with City Sight today

Speaking at City Sight, President of City, University of London, Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein, said:

I don’t think many people know what an amazing facility this is. It’s where we train our undergraduate and postgraduate optometry students and give them the opportunity to engage in supervised learning with students, staff and members of the public.

“I would strongly encourage you to come here and have your free eye test done. That’s not only going to help you with your vision, but is also going to check for really important health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure and glaucoma.

“You’ll have the opportunity to not only have access to the best knowledge and state-of-the-art facilities, you’ll also be making a vital contribution to education.

“So come down here to City Sight.