Boots Professional Services handed maximum fine by the General Optical Council

Boots Opticians Professional Services has had the maximum possible fine of £50,000 imposed on it by the General Optical Council (GOC) following a Fitness to Practise Committee’s concerns for failing to appropriately manage protected disclosures made about clinical concerns within its business.

The ruling follows the so-called ‘whistleblowing case’ which heard extensive evidence at the GOC late last year (News 21.12.18).A statement from the GOC said the FtP Committee found Boots Opticians Professional Services LTD’s fitness to carry on business impaired for: ‘failing to appropriately manage protected disclosures made about clinical concerns within their business.’

Committee chair by Anne Johnstone, said: ‘The Committee would have expected a business registrant which was cognisant of the importance of whistleblowing as an important mechanism for monitoring patient safety to have addressed the deficiencies in its policy and delivered appropriate training to all of its employees much earlier, and with a much greater sense of urgency, than had in fact occurred here.