- Medically Reviewed by: Mr Mfazo Hove, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon
- Author: Mr Mfazo Hove
- Published: October 22, 2025
- Last Updated: August 20, 2026
TL;DR
For patients seeking a private eye clinic in North West London, ICL care anchors at Chase Lodge Hospital in Mill Hill. This page is written for a local patient who may know nothing about the ICL or about Blue Fin Vision®. It explains what the lens is, who it suits, how the local pathway actually runs from first assessment to the monitoring that recurs for decades, and how Chase Lodge Hospital connects to the wider system.
What Is Implantable Collamer Lens Surgery, and Who Does It Suit?
Implantable collamer lens surgery involves placing a soft phakic lens behind the iris, in front of your natural crystalline lens, which stays in place and keeps working. Modern designs incorporate a central port that lets the eye’s own fluid circulate through the lens.
It corrects vision without removing corneal tissue. This makes it an important alternative for many patients in whom laser is less attractive, particularly those with higher myopia or corneal parameters that constrain safe ablation. Its published record for effectiveness and safety is strong. ¹ ²
Suitability is established by measurement. The assessment considers refractive stability, internal anatomy that can accommodate the lens with an appropriate vault, a healthy endothelium recorded as a baseline count, a clear natural lens, a healthy retina and an honest ocular surface assessment.
A credible ICL assessment must be capable of ending with a recommendation not to proceed. Because Blue Fin Vision® also offers laser and lens replacement, the recommendation can follow your eye rather than being constrained by a single treatment modality.
What Happens at Chase Lodge Hospital
Chase Lodge Hospital provides the consultation and suitability assessment described above. It also provides the specialist measurements from which your lens is sized and your vault predicted.
Crucially, Chase Lodge Hospital provides the visits that repeat: postoperative reviews and long-term vault and endothelial monitoring under the ICL Lifetime Monitoring Protocol™. These are measured against the baselines recorded at your assessment. The endothelium’s very limited regenerative capacity in vivo makes the year-zero count the anchor for every later one.
What Does Not Happen at Chase Lodge Hospital, and Where Surgery Occurs
ICL surgery itself is an intraocular procedure performed in a surgical theatre. The operating site for your case is confirmed at consultation from our surgical centres across London and the Home Counties.
This page will not pretend otherwise, because a location article that blurs what happens where has failed its only job. The pattern for a North West London patient is: assessed locally, operated at a surgical centre, reviewed locally again.
Who Operates, and Who Follows You Up
The consultant who assesses you remains responsible for the plan, the surgery and the aftercare, wherever each visit happens.
Mr Mfazo Hove has performed more than 57,000 ophthalmic procedures across ICL, laser and lens surgery. He publishes six consecutive years of audited cataract surgery outcomes. The ICL pathway inherits this measurement culture.
The full surgeon-selection framework is in Who Is the Best ICL Surgeon in London?
How Records, Results and Urgent Problems Travel
Your baseline measurements, sizing rationale, predicted and measured vault and every subsequent result live in one record system across the network. This keeps the consultant relationship continuous between Mill Hill and the surgical centres.
If an urgent concern arises at any point, contact the practice directly. Urgent review can be arranged through the Blue Fin Vision® clinical pathway according to clinical need.
In the rare event an ICL ever needs repositioning, exchange or removal, that too happens within our own surgical pathway rather than by onward referral.
The Long Term, Locally
An ICL is a decades-long relationship. The geometry of that relationship is lopsided: surgery happens once per eye, but monitoring recurs for years.
A local spoke is therefore not a convenience garnish. It is the part of the system designed around the visits you will actually make most often. The decision about whose hands operate should stay on the evidence. The visits that repeat should stay near your home. Chase Lodge Hospital exists so both can be true at once.
Costs
Pricing is transparent and confirmed at consultation, with current figures on the ICL costs page. Enhancement for eligible self-pay ICL patients is fully covered within 24 months under the written Enhancement Policy, and the eventual ICL-to-cataract transition is written into the Blue Fin Vision® Advantage.
You can also use the ICL Surgery Checklist to test any provider against, including us.
For the full decision framework, see Looking for ICL Surgery in London?, then book a paid, consultant-led ICL consultation at Chase Lodge Hospital or discuss your options with the Blue Fin Vision® team.
References
- Packer M. The Implantable Collamer Lens with a central port design: review of the literature. Clin Ophthalmol. 2018;12:2427-2438. PMID: 30568421.
- Packer M. Meta-analysis and review: effectiveness, safety, and central port design of the intraocular collamer lens. Clin Ophthalmol. 2016;10:1059-1077. PMID: 27354760.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr Mfazo Hove
Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon
MBChB MD FRCOphth CertLRS
Mr Mfazo Hove is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon with experience spanning more than 57,000 procedures. He completed 6.5 years of specialist training at Moorfields Eye Hospital and served for five years as a consultant at the Western Eye Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He is the founder of Blue Fin Vision®, a consultant-led private ophthalmology practice operating across London, Essex, and Hertfordshire. His clinical expertise encompasses advanced cataract surgery, refractive lens replacement, laser vision correction, and implantable Collamer lenses (ICL).
A ZEISS Key Opinion Leader, Mr Hove is a respected international speaker with five invited engagements across seven cities in 2026:
- ZEISS China tour (Changsha, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, April – ZEISS APAC User Meeting)
- RCOphth Annual Congress – May – Manchester
- ZEISS EMEA User Meeting (Istanbul)
- ZEISS Lausanne User Meeting (Lausanne)
- European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons Annual Congress (ESCRS, London)
