Gerard Fernandes Awarded Fellowship (FCOptom) of the College of Optometrists
We have some proud news to share. Gerard, Clinical Director and co-founder of Lynne Fernandes Optometrists, has been awarded Fellowship of the College of Optometrists. He received it at the College’s ceremony in Westminster on 11 October and can now put FCOptom after his name.
It is a personal honour, but it recognises something every patient at LFO benefits from: years of work to make our clinical care consistently excellent, at every one of our practices.
What Fellowship of the College of Optometrists means
Fellowship is the highest award in UK optometry. It is not given for a single exam. It is awarded on a portfolio of sustained achievement, reviewed by senior figures in the profession. Gerard’s portfolio was assessed across three areas: clinical practice, higher qualifications in vision science, and the wider provision of healthcare.
His certificate recognises his “outstanding contribution to furthering excellence in the practice of optometry”, and it is a recognition of the standards we work to at LFO every day.
Expert eye care in your community
The award reflects a body of clinical work built over many years.
- Independent Prescribing. Gerard can diagnose, treat and prescribe medicines for a wide range of eye conditions, so many problems that once meant a GP or hospital referral can now be managed locally.
- Glaucoma expertise. Glaucoma can steal sight silently. Gerard’s advanced glaucoma qualifications (DipGlauc) help ensure it is detected early and monitored carefully.
- Bristol Eye Hospital. Gerard has worked in the glaucoma clinics at Bristol Eye Hospital since 2004, and alongside the consultant team in the Complex Glaucoma clinics since 2021. This strengthens the link between community and hospital care, so patients who need specialist treatment get there quickly.
- Research and higher study. Gerard holds an MSc with Distinction from Aston University, focused on managing children’s eyes before short-sightedness develops. He was named Optometrist of the Year in 2024.
Community optometry is where most eye disease is first found. Our skill is telling normal from abnormal with real accuracy: reassuring the many, monitoring those at risk, and treating or referring early when it matters.
Excellent care, whoever you see
One clinician can only see so many patients, so Gerard has spent much of his career developing the optometrists around him. At LFO, our optometrists are supported to train further and take on more complex care, and knowledge is shared openly across the team.
That is why this expertise does not depend on getting an appointment with Gerard. It lives in the whole team. Our clinical care is also systemised, so great eye care never depends on luck or on which clinician happens to be free:
- Built on evidence. How we examine, test and manage each condition is based on current research, not habit.
- Written down and shared. Every optometrist works to the same clear clinical standards, at every practice.
- Audited. We regularly check our own records and outcomes to confirm those standards are met.
- Reviewed and improved. What the audits show is fed back to the team, and our methods are updated as the evidence moves on.
It is a cycle that never stops, and the result is care you can trust: whichever LFO practice you visit, and whoever you see, you receive the same thorough, evidence-based standard.
What this means for you
The best way to benefit from this standard of care is EyeSense, our personalised, predictive and preventative eyecare plan, caring for patients since 2007. Everything described above, from evidence-based protocols to audit and review, sits behind every EyeSense plan.
You can see our optometrists at any of our practices in Bristol (Wells Road and Gloucester Road), Nailsea, Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon.
Congratulations, Gerard, and thank you to everyone on the LFO team who makes this standard possible.
