Confusion - when the left hand says "x" and the right "y" - Eye exam aircrew

[TimBit]

Ok... putting the last touches to my CT/OT, I completed my part II for initial aircrew yesterday, at the Ottawa CF Health Services Centre. Everything went well, fit for duty.

BUT... I never completed any eye examination. I mean, of course a med tech made me read a chart on the wall, and I did great as usual, read the last line with one eye and two-thirds of it with the other. But that's it.

Now, no one at the CDU mentionned anything or said anything. They insist that I don't need one, that I'm good to go and that the file is ready to go to Toronto. Now the ophtalmology clinic says, on the contrary, that I do need an ophtalmological exam but that they cannot do it and I have to have it done on the street. No problemo, I'll book one for myself. But before suffering the delays AND costs of that exam, could someone here please confirm/infirm that I need one? Is there some special kind of dispensation that I am missing here? I need A4, but clearly FSG 100-01 states that

Complete ophthalmic examination within the preceding 12 months to include corrected/uncorrected visual acuity at 6 m, 30-50 cm, and 100 cm, dilated fundoscopy, muscle balance, visual fields, and ocular pressures. Exams can be done by an Ophthalmologist, an Optometrist or an Ophthalmic Technician. A cycloplegic refraction is required for all initial aircrew.

Does this also mean that I can have the testing done by an optometrist rather than an ophtalmologist, cutting both time and $$$? I wish that someone over there could actually have given me a straight answer here, but unfortunately it cannot seem to be.

Thanks!

 

[TimBit]

I'll answer my own question  ;D

I hold from a trusted source in D Med Pol (the authority for such things) that apparently, policy was changed recently (surprise!) and that applicants who are going aircrew OTHER THAN PILOTS and who have 20/20 vision with no prior medical history indicating eye problems do not have to undergo a detailed ophtalmologic exam as part of their initial aircrew.

Comments?

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I *believe* (it was a few years ago now...) I went for an initial eye exam and THEN was scheduled for the cyclo because the initial one showed something they needed to look at further.

 

[TimBit]

Ah I'm really happy to have someone confirm that. Thanks a bunch Eye in The Sky, it really is a load off my mind. I dreaded a cock-up once in Toronto and we are kind of hoping for a quick CT/move now.

Cheers!