A case study on NHS Open Space and Optegra’s partnership, powered by flexible, patient-centric solutions.

Founded in 2007, Optegra is an established UK-wide independent healthcare provider specialising in ophthalmic healthcare. As specialists in cataract and vision correction surgery, they operate from 19 custom-built hospitals to deliver these vital services privately on the NHS's behalf. More recently, they have extended their locations with a key partnership with NHS Open Space (Open Space).

The challenge

Many Optegra patients have poor eyesight and may rely on carers and family members to support them in attending medical appointments. Optegra recognised this challenge and its impact on their patients and looked to ease this by limiting patients' drive time and being able to access local NHS services in their community setting. 

To do this, Optegra had the idea of building a hub-and-spoke model, where their existing hospitals would act as central treatment centres for surgical procedures. However, they needed to find a partner with a portfolio of appropriately located, CQC-registered healthcare premises that could act as 'spoke' community-based diagnostic and assessment centres.

The Optegra team then began to search for potential solutions. They considered working with independent GPs to host assessments but found that this route was fraught with red tape and didn't offer them the scale and flexibility they needed. Open Space was the ideal solution.

The solution

Since signing up to Open Space in June 2024, Optegra has delivered 3,752 hours of vital eye assessments in local communities and has treated over 600 patients. They typically book eight-hour sessions across five sites: Failsworth Primary Care Centre, Havant Health Centre, Eastleigh Health Centre, Lance Burn Health Centre and Lever Chambers Centre for Health.

The key to the success of this result has been a strong partnership. Optegra identified areas where they were looking to support patients and found through the Open Space booking platform that they had properties in these locations. However, they needed to secure long-term bookings for these spaces to make the hub-and-spoke model work. They contacted the Open Space team and worked together to ensure that all customers, including Optegra, could be accommodated in a particular site.

Another vital element has been the flexibility of Open Space to accommodate regular long-term bookings at specific sites. Having the security of repeat property usage is essential to Optegra as it enables them to not only support the hub-and-spoke model they were looking to implement but also store expensive and delicate diagnostic equipment securely at these sites. Regularly moving this equipment would mean that it would need to be recalibrated each time, impacting the volume of patients being assessed. While equipment storage is not typically part of the service offered, the Open Space team was able to facilitate this due to Optegra's continued commitment to use these rooms.