Dr John Bowbyes is the sole ophthalmologist practising at Queenstown Eye and his patients come from word of mouth recommendations and direct referrals from eye care professionals. Patients, optometrists, GP’s and other ophthalmologists trust Dr Bowbyes’s reputation for his professional skills and his ability to communicate.
Dr Bowbyes is an exceptionally well trained ophthalmologist who undertook his medical training at Otago Medical School and started his specialist training in Dunedin followed by seven years at the prestigious Moorfields Hospital in London. He was a Wellcome research Fellow attached to the Professorial Unit at Moorfields and a lecturer at London University through this position. He undertook fellowship training in medical retina whilst there and worked with Professor Alan Bird establishing the macular clinic and the Fluorescein angiography unit. He then completed a surgical retinal course at Bascom Palmer Eye clinic in Miami.
He returned to be a consultant at Dunedin Hospital and a lecturer at Otago University and subsequently started a very successful private practice with a special interest in medical and surgical retina. He was attracted to Auckland in 1993 and was appointed as a consultant at Auckland Hospital in charge of cataract surgery. He started two private eye clinics in Howick and at the Ascot Mercy Hospital in Remuera. With the retirement of one of his colleagues the practice was sold, and he decided to do part time work with one of his trainees in Australia and continued that for seven years before returning to New Zealand to settle in Queenstown.
As there was no ophthalmologist there he decided to open a practice in Queenstown. Here he can continue his specialty interest in medical retina and he equipped the clinic with “State of the Art “ technology. With his experience complimented by the latest technology he is able to offer an excellent service to his patients without them having to travel to Dunedin or Invercargill. At the present there is no dedicated eye operating theatre available in Queenstown for such procedures as cataract surgery.
