Specsavers' Dr Ben Ashby and Nick Gidas with Doug Perkins award winners Millicent Healy, Specsavers Beaudesert and Helen Haslett, Specsavers Masterton

Specsavers Australia and New Zealand announced the recipients of its prestigious 2023 Doug Perkins Medal and Dame Mary Perkins Award, designed to celebrate outstanding excellence in clinical performance and patient care, at the annual SCC conference in Sydney.

Doug Perkins Medal

This year's Doug Perkins medal winners are Specsavers Masterton and Specsavers Beaudesert Central in Queensland.

"To select the finalists and winners, we analyse nationwide data collected through our clinical reporting and combine this information with patient feedback and health outcome data,” said Specsavers head of clinical performance, Nick Gidas, who presented the awards. “We are delighted to crown Specsavers Beaudesert and Specsavers Masterton with this year's award in recognition of their exceptional commitment to clinical care throughout the year."

Specsavers Masterton’s optometry director Helen Haslett said the recognition is a pinnacle of her career and she was deeply humbled and proud of the Masterton team’s achievement. “Having started my optometry career in the UK with Specsavers in 2000, I have a deep-seated respect for the Specsavers model and its philosophy of ensuring that excellent, affordable eyecare is accessible to everyone and also that we treat everyone as we would like to be treated,” she said.

From the beginning, when she and retail partner Robert Gladwell opened Specsavers Masterton in 2012, they wanted to become ingrained in the community and have the practice for 20 years or more, said Haslett. “We have treated patients with honesty and respect and in doing so the practice has grown to what it is today. There is a lot of laughter and patients feed off the happiness within the store. Many arrive as strangers but leave as friends. Patients stop me in the street to chat and bring surprise baking in. I even had an invite to one patient’s wedding! We have also gained the respect of our local ophthalmologists and GPs with our referrals and shared care. Every member of the team plays a vital role in this, so we’re thrilled to be recognised for the work we’re doing,” she said.

Dame Mary Perkins Award

The Dame Mary Perkins Award celebrates and recognises the impact Specsavers optometrists can have on their patients’ lives.

This year’s awards were presented to optometrists Alice Jackson from Specsavers Hornby and Laura Hou from Specsavers Salamander Bay. Both had demonstrated an exceptional commitment to patient care, going above and beyond to make a positive difference, said the judges, Optometry Australia CEO Skye Cappuccio, Vision 2020 Australia CEO Carly Iles and Eye Health Aotearoa co-chair John Mulka.

Specsavers’ Cindy Nguyen with Lachlan Martin, Specsavers Hornby (accepting on behalf of Alice Jackson)

The Dame Mary Perkins Award continues to highlight the vital role optometrists play in the prevention of avoidable vision loss, said Mulka. “It was my absolute pleasure to participate in judging this year’s awards. I found each submission very worthy and a difficult task to rate one over the other. I was quite moved by the evident passion and commitment of Specsavers optometrists and the empathy shown in each and every case. It’s a great reminder of the goodness of people.”