The team
Elin owns the practice and does the examinations. Josh does the frames and the lenses, and glazes half of them himself. Val runs the desk, the NHS forms and the contact lens teaching. Rhodri, the second optometrist, is in three days a week. Everyone is on a salary and nobody is paid to sell.
Optometrist and owner. Examinations, children, urgent care
Qualified in Cardiff in 2004, worked for a chain and a hospital eye clinic, and opened on Merthyr Road in 2009 because she wanted forty minutes with each patient rather than twenty. Accredited for the Wales Eye Care Service and for glaucoma and medical retina monitoring. Does most of the children and all of the urgent cases. Wears the own-range frames in olive.
Dispensing optician. Frames, lenses, the glazing bench
Qualified dispensing optician, registered with the General Optical Council, here since 2015. Buys the frames, measures every pair to the face, explains every lens, and glazes the single-vision pairs himself at the bench in the back so they are ready the same day. Known for talking people out of lenses they do not need. Wears Danish titanium, which he admits is a weakness.
Practice manager. The desk, the NHS forms, contact lens teaching
Ran the desk at a Llandaff practice for twelve years before joining in 2010. Books the appointments, checks NHS entitlement and does the voucher forms without making anyone feel awkward, teaches new contact lens wearers at the mirror, and fits the urgent cases into a full day. The second optometrist, Rhodri Jones, works Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Registration and training
Both optometrists and the dispensing optician are registered with the GOC, with the registration numbers on the wall and on request, and the continuing education that goes with it.
Elin and Rhodri are accredited for the Eye Health Examination Wales and the urgent eye care pathway, which is why a red eye is seen here the same day rather than at the Heath.
Elin holds the higher certificates in glaucoma and medical retina, so some patients who would once have been sent to the hospital every year are monitored here instead.
Everyone who sees children or does home visits is enhanced DBS checked and renewed every three years. Val keeps the certificates with the GOC ones.
Rhodri Jones
Rhodri qualified in 2015, joined in 2019 from a hospital eye clinic, and does Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, which is why Thursday evenings and Saturdays exist. He is accredited for the same services as Elin, takes the contact lens aftercare clinic, and has a reputation with teenagers for not being boring about it. You can ask for either optometrist when you book.
Book an examinationForty minutes with the optometrist, the OCT scan included, £35 or free on the NHS if you qualify. Tell us the days that suit and Val confirms a time within the working day. Sudden eye problem? Ring, and you are seen today.