"It was getting difficult to actually work"

As an architect and director of an engineering and management consultancy in West Sussex, Robert Baker spends much of his time poring over detailed drawings and plans for large-scale pharmaceutical building projects all over the world.

So when he started to struggle to see detail in drawings, he took himself along to his optician. “It was getting difficult and tiring to actually work,” he says. “And I could notice the deterioration when driving too, especially at night. I thought I wasn’t getting on with my glasses, that they weren’t the right prescription. But the optician said it wasn’t the glasses. I had a cataract. I was actually relieved because I’d had problems for some time, and here was an identified cause that could be treated.”

Robert was referred to a Bupa-approved ophthalmic surgeon, and within two weeks had undergone an operation to remove the cataract. “It was completely painless, just a bit creepy because you have your eye open. I could see the lights on the ceiling while they were doing it.”

The operation was a success, and after a week he was able to drive again and get back to work. “I can see a lot better in the eye that was operated on now. What was my bad eye is now the best one.” he says.

He does in fact have a cataract in his other eye too. That one won’t need removing for another couple of years, but when it does Robert intends to go through the same process with Bupa. “The good thing about our Bupa cover is that we can have access to certain medical care when we want it to some degree,” he says.

This is an important consideration for Robert and his two colleagues who are also on the company’s Bupa scheme. They travel a lot (Robert says he’s away about once a week) because the building projects his company oversees are as far afield as the US and Singapore. “So if we’re travelling we can schedule appointments when we want them, within reason. Being able to plan like this helps us to run the business more effectively.

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