Costco needs planning consent for GOS return

Milton Keynes PCT says warehouse retailer Costco could seek to join its ophthalmic list as well as to rejoin those of the other PCTs from which it withdrew, if it resolves a planning permission issue.

'If they've got everything in hand across the country to get the necessary planning permission, then they'd be on everyone's list again,' Milton Keynes PCT's director of contracts, Tom Wilson, informed Optician. Costco voluntarily withdraw from the ophthalmic lists of 16 PCTs as reported in Optician July 25.

Wilson revealed that after the High Court judgement rejecting Costco's appeal against the Family Health Service Appeals Authority (FHSAA) ruling to uphold the decision to refuse Costco entry onto its ophthalmic list, the retailer wrote to the PCT asking if it could be temporarily included on the list while it resolved its planning permission issues.