Complaints service identifies grey area

Concerns have been lodged over a grey area of unsettled patient complaints about optical practices amid increasing numbers of grievances.

The Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) provided an update on its regulating activities at the quarterly meeting of the General Optical Council last week.

The service had been contacted by 2,125 patients in 2011, compared to 1,390 in the prior year. The projection for 2012 was 2,168 contacts.

Patients were now using the internet to lodge their complaint in more than 50 per cent of cases, it said. The most common categories related to prescriptions and service.

The GOC was called on to fill in a grey area of complaints that the OCCS did not have the authority to deal with.