Apathy over CET site may mean higher fees

Apathy over CET site may mean higher fees Practitioners may end up paying the bill for their colleagues' apathy towards registering on the profession's CET scheme website.

The warning has come from the General Optical Council, which expressed its concern that so many have not logged on and registered with the site run by its CET scheme managers Vantage.

OPTICIAN has learnt that over 4,000 have yet to register on www.cetoptics.com, a huge number which could cost all those in the profession through higher registration fees.

The GOC will have to bear the administration burden of chasing up thousands of missing registrants if they are still not bothered to join the 12,000 others already logged on.

And the possibility of a rise in registration fees to pay for it is looming, a GOC spokeswoman confirmed this week.

'We're very concerned that we still have this very large number of individuals still outstanding,' she said.

'This is becoming a pressing matter right now because the Council will have to think about its potential costs, and how they will be reflected in next year's registration fee which will be discussed as early as next month and into November.'

Before that discussion, the missing 4,000 will be receiving letters reminding them to register on the cetoptics website this month, and the GOC hopes that the professional bodies will also encourage their members too, via an open letter.

All optometrists and dispensing opticians need to provide evidence they have achieved the required number of points to continue to practise.

However, the GOC fears that some practitioners might present their points 'in a shoebox' instead of via the more efficient internet method, creating an administrative nightmare. 'In a worst case scenario - in which we still had 4,000 not logged on by December 2006 - there would be a huge amount of data entry chasing,' said the GOC spokeswoman.

'Potentially that would mean three or four members of GOC staff dedicated to dealing with paper records, checking points and phoning course providers over a period of months.'

This would lead to a substantial cost implication, she said, and the GOC would be forced to put up registration fees so all professionals would end up paying more.

She added that the GOC did not want to increase fees if at all possible, an aspiration that was voiced during the last Council meeting which took place in the summer.

 Not logged your CET points? Go to www.cetoptics.com