BOOTS is to scrap all its laser eye-surgery clinics after suffering multimillion-pound losses and failing to win public confidence in the high-tech procedure.
The move, in which nine laser treatment centres close by the end of the year, will come two weeks after The Times alerted Boots to two US lawsuits questioning the reli- ability of the type of lasers used in its clinics.
The company said yesterday that it was shutting down its laser operation, used by 10,000 Britons a year, because it had not generated expected profits. Boots’s high street dentistry, chiropody and laser hair-removal services are also to be scrapped in an attempt to improve its finances.
The Times reported last month how two multimillion-dollar lawsuits filed in America accuse Alcon, the manufacturer of Boots’s eye-surgery machines, of producing unreliable lasers. A further 20 Canadian and American doctors using the Nasa-based laser technology, LADARVision Systems, have reported problems with it.
At the time, Boots said that it was surprised and concerned at the allegations but denied that any complaints had been brought by patients over its lasers. It said that it would contact 49 patients who had been treated on one machine, used at its eye-surgery clinic in Regent Street, which had been examined by Alcon in 2001 after concerns about possible malfuntioning.
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The Times has learnt that at least one patient — a Boots employee — brought a negligence claim against the company after a procedure in 2001 allegedly left her with permanently damaged sight. After the Times report, senior Boots executives agreed to meet the customer to discuss compensation.
A Boots spokesman said last night that the decision to pull out of laser eye surgery was based solely on business sense and was not swayed by the prospect of litigation similar to that in America. The company said that it could not comment on the case of the employee who claims to have suffered eye damage. “The decision to close the clinics is nothing to do with the reputation of the industry,” the spokesman said. “It is to do with the fact that we can’t generate enough income from them to satisfy our shareholders.”
Alcon, the Swiss-owned manufacturer of the LADAR Vision systems used by Boots, is facing litigation amid claims that some of its lasers started malfunctioning, causing “wildly erratic results”.
Alcon is being sued in the North Carolina District Court by EBW Laser, a holding company that acquired ten of its lasers to lease to US clinics. The lawsuit contends that two of the machines were “badly malfunctioning”.
Surgeons have linked the machines to a range of adverse effects such as glare, blurred vision and erroneous removal of eye tissue. The alleged erratic performance of these machines has “necessitated thousands of patients to have their eyes redone, often multiple times”, the documents claim. EBW also alleges that Alcon knew that its device was malfunctioning but failed to inform doctors. Alcon denies the allegations.
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An eye surgeon in Washington State, who was sued by Alcon for failing to pay fees on the machines, has also filed suit against the company. Several other actions are being brought by doctors and patients. It is understood that the eye surgeon also made his allegations to the US Food and Drugs Administration, the regulatory body, in January this year.
In 2002, five doctors described their concerns about LADARVision in a conference call to senior Alcon executives, including Tim Sear, the chairman. In the conversation, a transcript of which is with The Times, the ophthalmologists said that they had not had problems with the lasers at first but later received inexplicably poor or erratic results.
The legal action began in 2003 when EBW Laser was sued for non-payment of leasing fees. In a countersuit, EBW alleged that Alcon’s failure to disclose “critical information known to it of widespread malfunctioning machines” at the time the contract was signed constituted unfair trade practice.
Mr Sear told The Times that the laser procedure was safe and effective and that the litigation in the US courts was the result of financial disputes.
“Laser surgery is safe and effective. Ask one million Americans and the 90,000 Britons that have benefited from this technique using Alcon’s LADARVision laser, not to mention the hundreds of ophthalmologists who deliver the procedure,” he said. The surgery, which costs about £1,000 an eye, has become popular in recent years, although demand has not matched industry expectations. There are 90 clinics in the UK carrying out operations on more than 80,000 people a year.
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Fears about the lack of regulation of the industry has led to a parliamentary inquiry, headed by Frank Cook, the Labour MP, which is due to report back later this year. The issues linked to Alcon were cited in expert evidence before the panel and are expected to appear in its report.
As well as being used in Boots’s nine eye-treatment centres, Alcon’s LADARVision Systems are used in two private clinics in London and Aberdeen.
The Boots clinics, the first of which opened in 2000, generated a turnover of £19.4 million in the last financial year, making losses of £3.8 million.
It is estimated that the closure of the laser eye clinics, dental and chiropody practices, and laser hair-removal services will affect up to 850 jobs and involve the company in exceptional costs of £55 million. The clinics will complete the treatment of existing patients but will take on no new ones and close their doors by December 31.