This practice was built on four principles
This practice was built on four principles
Patient safety comes before everything else. Not as a policy statement. As the organising principle behind every single decision made here.
Every decision was made for the patient. The building, the team structure, the protocols, the equipment, the floor — all of it was designed for the person having care, not for the convenience of delivering it.
The published evidence base is the floor, not the ceiling. When the evidence identifies best practice, we apply it without compromise. When we can go further, we go further.
The standard has to hold on a difficult day, not just a good one. Every system, every protocol, every piece of redundancy in this building exists so that the standard holds when it is hardest to hold — not just when it is easy.
These are not aspirations. They are the explanation behind every specific fact on this website.
Dr Alex Buller
Dr Alex Buller
Founding Surgeon
Alex Buller graduated in medicine from the University of Sheffield and completed his ophthalmological training at Manchester Eye Hospital, one of the largest eye hospitals in Europe. He undertook further specialist training in the medical and surgical care of glaucoma before becoming a consultant ophthalmologist.
He founded The Eye Surgery in Hastings in 2018 with Sophie because they believed it should exist.
Alex has more than 10 years experience teaching cataract surgery to other ophthalmologists, and has published a novel cataract surgical technique that has been cited by a teaching hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. He developed the Tenons Traction Technique for glaucoma surgery, presented at the World Glaucoma Congress in Rome in 2023. He introduced the Tanito hook MIGS (Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery) procedure to New Zealand and worked with Southern Cross Health Insurance to get it onto the national reimbursement schedule — making it available throughout the country. He performed the first MIMS (Minimally Invasive Microsclerostomy) procedure in the Southern Hemisphere.
He designed and developed the shared care glaucoma scheme for Hawkes Bay, allowing glaucoma patients in public hospital care to be monitored in the community by trained optometrists. The Eye Surgery still administers that scheme. He has presented at international glaucoma meetings and on sustainability issues in healthcare, including an ecologically safe cleaning method for healthcare facilities including operating theatres developed at The Eye Surgery.
The Eye Surgery built and maintains glaucoma4k.org — a free teaching resource of stereo optic disc photographs used by healthcare professionals in over 100 countries.
Dr Sophie Buller
Dr Sophie Buller
Co-Founder, Practice Manager, Clinician
Sophie Buller graduated with a BSc degree in Neuroscience from the University of Sheffield, then returned to complete her medical degree (MBChB) which she achieved with Distinction. She holds a Masters degree in Primary Care Ophthalmology from the University of Edinburgh, also awarded with Distinction. She has worked in eye clinics for over ten years.
She co-founded The Eye Surgery with Alex in 2018, designing the facility and making the environmental decisions built into the fabric of this building with eco-materials and sustainable fittings.
Sophie is the Practice Manager. She writes the clinical protocols and designs the systems that govern every patient interaction — the appointment processes, the patient flow, the clinical documentation. Everything that makes the invisible work visible is, in large part, her design.
She runs the practice's specialised dry eye clinic — a service for patients with more severe disease, using advanced diagnostic testing and prescription treatments beyond standard approaches. She also sees acute ophthalmic, general ophthalmic, and postoperative patients.
What this practice has built
What this practice has built
Purpose-built for eye surgery.
Nothing else has ever happened in this theatre — every design decision, from the floor to the equipment positions, was made for this and nothing else.
The whole building is independently audited to national day-stay hospital standards.
Not just the theatre — every room. The standard that protects you in surgery applies from the moment you walk through the front door.
The sterilisation processes here hold an international award for excellence.
This is the part of the building you never see. The award exists because an independent examination found the standard exceptional.
Infection control protocols developed here are now used by practices across New Zealand and Australia
— because the standard developed here was worth adopting.
Locally owned.
No corporate parent. No external shareholders. Every clinical and operational decision is made by the clinicians whose names are on your notes — with no other interest competing with yours.
B-corp certified and carbon neutral — both independently verified against measured standards.
Sustainability & Global Impact
Sustainability & Global Impact
This is the only solar-powered operating theatre in New Zealand.
Solar powered and battery backed, off-grid capable. Surgery continues uninterupted even if the Hastings grid fails — the theatre runs on its own power supply, charged by a solar installation that generates more electricity than the building uses. The surplus goes to the community grid. You will never need to think about this. That is exactly why it exists. Read more about our award-winning sustainability practices here.
For every cataract operation performed here, two are funded in the Pacific Islands through the Fred Hollows Foundation New Zealand.
This costs the patient nothing extra — it comes out of this practice's budget, because some decisions do not need a commercial justification. Read our social responsibility article here.
A free glaucoma teaching resource — www.glaucoma4k.org — built here and used by healthcare professionals in over 100 countries.
By choosing this practice, patients contribute to the standard of glaucoma care worldwide. See more here.
The shared care glaucoma scheme for Hawkes Bay was designed here
— allowing patients in the public system to be monitored in the community by trained optometrists working to a specialist standard. The scheme is published and still administered here by registering new optometrists. Read more about glaucoma here.
