​OutsideClinic to recruit 75 roles following record growth

Press Release

OutsideClinic to recruit 75 roles following record growth

• Leading at-home eye and hearing care provider plans to increase its 300-strong team by 25% - including 50 optometrists
• Follows a 50% rise in demand for its domiciliary services, with the company on track to achieve a record £30m turnover
• Owners, Optimism Health Group, aim to create a £100m turnover business in next five years

OutsideClinic, the UK’s leading provider of home eye care and hearing services, has announced plans to increase its headcount by 25% over the next 12 months following a 50% rise in demand for its services since the start of the year.

The Swindon-headquartered company currently has 300 staff operating across England, Scotland and Wales and plans to recruit a further 75 in a variety of roles, including 50 optometrists and 12 audiologists.

It’s launching its biggest ever recruitment campaign following a huge increase in demand for its services amongst the over 65’s market it primarily serves, with OutsideClinic on track to achieve a record £30m turnover this financial year.

Demand for the company’s at-home services, which typically see its clinicians conduct 100,000 eye and hearing tests in patients’ homes each year, has been fuelled by a growing over-65’s market, with the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in many older people preferring to book home visits rather than travel to their high street optician.

With projections forecasting that people aged 65 and over will account for almost a quarter of the UK population by 2038¹ and the home healthcare market expected to grow by 6.4% from 2019 to 2026², the company is priming itself for further growth. Its owners, Optimism Health Group, aim to turn OutsideClinic into a £100m turnover business over the next five years.

The biggest recruitment drive in the company’s history will see OutsideClinic grow its 75-strong team of optometrists by two-thirds (to 125) over the next year, improving both its reach and appointment capacity.

Hearing services are a rapidly growing area for the business too, and OutsideClinic is planning on recruiting a further 12 domiciliary audiologists to add to its 30-strong team operating across the UK. The company is also planning to grow its support teams too, in order to ensure the company is best placed to meet growing demand from patients for its services.

Commenting on the recent growth and recruitment drive, OutsideClinic’s managing director, Richard Gibson, said:

“Demand for our industry-leading services has never been greater, with our talented team delivering clinically excellent eye care and hearing services in the homes of the hundreds of thousands of people who most need us.

“With the over-65 population set to grow significantly, we anticipate demand for our domiciliary services will increase substantially in the coming years and it’s vital we’re able to meet this demand while continuing to deliver the gold standard eye and hearing care that our patients have come to expect from us.

“The next 12 months will see us strengthen every area of our team, with a particular focus on growing our optometry team as part of our mission to ensure that excellent eye care is available to everyone from the comfort of their own home. We promise industry leading technology, unrivalled flexibility and the time and support needed to provide a service that makes a genuine difference to people’s lives. We’re excited about our next chapter.”

To support its recruitment plans, the company has created a series of short videos, which you can watch here, spotlighting the work its optometrists do and the many benefits that come with a career at the forefront of domiciliary eye care. These include not having to work weekends like high street opticians and access to the very latest, state-of-the-art equipment.

To learn more about the new roles available, visit outsideclinic.co.uk/optometry.

ENDS

For further information and images or to request an interview with OutsideClinic MD Richard Gibson, please contact Matt Thompson of Evergreen PR on matt.thompson@evergreenpr.co.uk or 07587418710.

Notes to editors

References

¹ Office of National Statistics (ONS). Overview of the UK population: August 2019

² Fortune Business Insights. The U.K home healthcare market size, share and industry analysis (2019-2026).

OutsideClinic was founded more than 30 years ago with a single belief that clinically excellent eye-care should be accessible and affordable for all. Three decades on and the company is now one of the UK’s biggest domiciliary eye and hearing care providers, changing people’s lives by delivering clinically excellent optometry and audiology services in the homes of the people who need it most.

As the original pioneers of optical and audiology care at home, OutsideClinic uses the latest technology and processes to ensure it stays ahead of the curve. Its clinicians operate at the forefront of domiciliary eye and hearing care, providing clinically excellent services that change patients’ lives.

It is headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire, with over 100 domiciliary clinicians covering all areas of England, Scotland and Wales.