Counter promises no compulsion on CET

However, he has urged dispensing opticians who are contact lens fitters to join the General Optical Council's new CET list for 2001. Writing in the Association of British Dispensing Opticians monthly journal, Dispensing Optics, Duncan Counter who is the chairman of ABDO's communications and training committee, aimed to 'clear the air' on the topic ahead of the new dispensing optician CET scheme which is due to begin at the end of this month. 'There is no question of CET of any sort being compulsory,' Mr Counter, who is a past president of ABDO, has stated. 'It is undertaken as a purely voluntary act. I would like to think that most of us would (and indeed already do) engage in CET in the spirit of maintaining a high level of professional expertise.' Nevertheless, he has reminded members involved in contact lenses as a speciality that the GOC will be targeting them for publication of its CET list from next year. 'Obviously for those in contact lens practice, the concept of undertaking CET is a higher priority,' he writes. 'In order to qualify for inclusion on the new GOC list in 2001 they are required to have gained six contact lens-specific CET points by the end of the year. It is not compulsory - but advisable.' Mr Counter, who spoke out against any fears of compulsory CET at ABDO's conference last year (News, September 24, 1999), said members could expect to be allocated one CET point per hour or thereabouts of lectures attended with around 1.5 points per hour for workshops with supervised practical content. Points allocation will roughly correspond to one point per 2,000 words/six MCQs. Mr Counter suggested that 30 CET points over a three-year period 'would be neither too difficult, nor onerous', and that 10 to 15 hours' involvement a year was a small price to pay for keeping up to date.