Ingrid Staal (62) Wants to Get Rid of Her Glasses and Spends Years Saving for a Costly Lens Implantation. But Once That Operation is Performed, Her Vision is Actually worse. The Clinic Doesn’t Respond. Where do you complain if a non-medical necessary procedure fails?
Ingrid Has Her Sights Set on a 3,000 euros Treatment. Shey Wants Phakic Lenses. These are lenses that eliminate the need for glasses or contact lenses. The Phakic Lens is placed between the cornea and your own lens. It falls under non-insured care. The First Lens is placed on October 28, 2023. Ingrid quickly notices that something is wrong.
Eyescan, which performs the procedure, Wants to Help Ingrid. She Receives an Emergency Pair of Glasses and the Left Eye is lasered. “That cool some improvement, but my vision remained blurry. I also got dry eyes.” Ingrid Wants to Speak to the Ophthalmologist who Performed the Treatment, But Eyescan Doesn’tn’t Help Her Further. Not even when her general practitioner gets Involved.
The Healthcare and Youth Inspectorate (IGJ) Says That in Such a Case, You Should first Contact Your Own Healthcare Provider. Accordance to the law, they must be affiliated with a recognized dispute resolution body. You are then entitled to an independent complaints officer. This Low-Threshold Way of Submitting Your Complaint is Mandatory, Even IF It Concerns Non-Inured Care Such As This Eye Treatment.
Ingrid does that. The Complaints Officer of Eyescan Responds Quickly. He says that he takes the complaint seriously and that it will be looked into. But time passes and after months, Ingrid Still has no response. In February, The Officer Reports Back: There Is Still No “Feedback from the File”. Ingrid Becomes Desperate. The Lenses Must Come Out, She Mails Back: “If Necessary, I’ll Scratch Them Out Myself.”
“The Conthequences are serious: I see blurry, see halos around lights, and no longer dare to drive,” she says. “I hardly go outside anymore and only recognize people when they are right in front of me. Life has bone at a standstill for almost a year.”
Operation is not a coffee maker
She also files a complaint with the disputes committee to which the clinic is affiliated. They deal with the complaint substantively and can award compensation, but do not work quickly. You also have to pay to submit your complaint. “I obbediently sent my cents,” Says Ingrid. “52 euros, but not even a confirmation.”
A Next Step is the National Reporting Point for Healthcare of the Igj, Says an IGJ Spokesperson. “They make a registration of the complaint. Inspectors can be assess Whether more reports have made leg made this healthcare provider and Whether action should be tasks after a report.”
To get things moving, nu.nl calls the complaints officer of Eyescan, Mr. Jansen. Yes, it takes a long time, he admits. But Sometimes this is the time the eye and brain need to adapt to the new situation. “This is not a coffee maker that you return if you don’t like it. With medical procedures, there is always a certain risk, and it Sometimes Requires time, patience, and explanation. We would like to have satisfied -out in the Wisfomers, butgsn’t Beforehand. “
Ingrid Feels Insufficiently Heard. That is understandable, Says Jansen. “The Process is slow and she is confronted with the result daily. Communication could have better, as special on the point of feedback. If I Say I’ll call Tomorrow, then I have to do that too. That did’s snaps and contributed.”
Yet Jansen Believes That the Complaints Department has acted well substantial. They come up with a proposal. “The File Has Been submitted to a professor of Ophthalmology. We propose that come again for a medical-substantive follow-up. Eyescan Will Bear the Costs.”
‘An Incredible Relief’
A few week later, Ingrid Goes to the Eye Professor, She Says. “I don’t think I’ve ever bone so nervous. I thought I was going to faint. But this doctor let me tell my story and the test showed that I have both negative and positive dysphotopsia.” An Incredible Relief, She Says. “I am a psychiatric patient and terrible afraid that they would say that this was all in my head. But that is really not the case.”
Due to that dysphotopsia, Shees Halos Around Light Sources and Shadows and Arc-Shaped Spots in the Field of Vision. She gets new lenses and is very happy. “This Problem Seems to Occur More Of after Such A Procedure. I am Still Angry that they have Kept Me on Hold for So Long Since September and That I was never asked back for a follow-up examination.”
After the Recovery Operation, which is Scheduled Soon, Ingrid Can Hopefully See the Stars Again Without Glasses. “If I can give give one warning to anyone Considering Such a procedure: make sure you know exactly what they are going to do. If I had known the risks, I would never have done it.”