The business faces of Cowra: Rob Webster

As part of our ongoing series, the Cowra Guardian chatted to well-known optometrist Rob Webster about following in his father's footsteps.

Tell us a bit about yourself and how long you have been an optometrist?

I was born in Cowra in 1970 and joined my father here in 1994 and graduated from the University of NSW in 1992, so quite a few years.

What made you want to become an optometrist?

I was very fortunate the opportunity was there to work in the family business.

I naturally gravitated to healthcare and optometry seemed like a good fit.

What does a typical day look like?

There's examination of eye health and prescribing glasses and contact lenses, that's the staple.

But I'm increasingly gauging whether people are fit to drive because it's become a bigger and bigger part of our responsibilities, that sort of testing.

And also over the last 30 years, not just detecting eye disease, but we've gained the right to prescribe a broader list of medications - eyedrops for treating things like glaucoma, dry eye disease.

I also work in very close collaboration with our nearest eye specialists in Orange and Bathurst.

Dr Basil Crayford comes and we are fortunate there's cataract surgery performed by him once a month in Cowra.

Do you have any advice for those looking at optometry as a career?

It's a great benefit, it's bloodless and there are no after hours in the normal run of things.

But I do fear for them about how hard it is to get in, it's more competitive by shear weight of numbers than it was in my day.

Mind you there are more universities that offer it now.

Tthere were three in my day, I think there are now six.

It is also a good way to meet a broad range of your local community.

All lot of it is problem solving and reassuring there is nothing too wrong with their eyes.

Particularly when they get older and they know someone in the family or a friend who has lost vision.

But fortunately, even just in 30 years, there's a lot more we can do for thing like macular degeneration.

It's not as nasty a diagnosis as it once was.

Is there something people could be doing to better look after their eye health?

Apart from giving up cigarettes, but a balanced diet.

It's hard to draw a direct link between general health and eye health, however diabetes has an alarming rate of younger people with serious vision threatening additions because of it.

Certainly diabetes seems to be linked to processed foods and our poorer dietary standards.

What is something about yourself people might not know?

I actually enjoy scoring at cricket.

I always enjoyed my involvement at the Cowra junior cricket.

My son is a bit too old for that at 17, he's still playing junior cricket just not in Cowra.

Is there anything else people should know about the life of an optometrist?

One thing in the country in its favour is you are forced to become familiar with a much wider range of diseases and conditions.

Because you don't have the number of specialists at hand you get at the city practices.

You've got to become a jack of all trades similar to GPs.

READ MORE:

The business faces of Cowra: Keira Wills

The business faces of Cowra: Greg Nicholls

The business faces of Cowra: Alina Piloiu

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