Guide · NHS and private
NHS eye test vs private: what the £55 actually buys
The NHS test isn’t a cut-down version. At an independent it’s the same optometrist, the same room and most of the same checks. The difference is what’s bolted on — and the honest answer is often to have the free test and add the scan.
What the NHS test is
A full sight test: your prescription, the health of the eye inside and out, the pressure check if you’re over forty, and — here — a retinal photograph. Thirty minutes with an optometrist. It’s funded by the NHS, so it’s free to you if you qualify, and we’re paid a fixed fee for it.
What a private test adds
Time, mostly: forty-five minutes rather than thirty, which means the extra checks — binocular vision, colour, a longer look at the front of the eye — and a proper conversation. The Gold examination adds the 3D OCT scan; Platinum adds a full visual fields test and additional OCT scans.
The honest recommendation
If you qualify for the NHS test, have it — and add the OCT scan for £35. That gets you the free test and the one piece of technology that finds early disease. Paying £95 for the Gold test when you qualify for the NHS one buys you fifteen more minutes; sometimes that’s worth it (complex prescriptions, lots to discuss), often it isn’t, and we’ll say which.
If you don’t qualify, the £55 private test is the base and the £95 Gold is the one most people should book.
The same chair
Whichever you have, you sit in the same chair with the same optometrist, and you leave with your prescription and a clear explanation. The NHS test is a full test; it was designed to be.
The short version
- The NHS test is a full test, free if you qualify
- Add the OCT scan for £35 — that’s the part that finds early disease
- Private buys time: 45 minutes, and the Gold scan
- If you qualify: NHS + OCT is usually the right answer