Crewe-based DO erased by GOC

Crewe-based dispensing optician Ben Burnage has been erased from the register by the General Optical Council. 

A GOC Fitness to Practise Committee found Burnage’s practice was impaired by reason of misconduct due to dishonesty after it was found he falsified a patient’s visual field results and withheld clinical data. 

During an examination in March 2021, Burnage was found to have replaced the original field test machine results for a patient’s left eye with the new results printed in their absence, resulting in potentially pathological results being left out.  

While the registrant had said that the field test machine was ‘playing up’ and he was ‘checking to see if the machine was working ok’, witnesses said that there had not been faults with the machine, none reported nor any calibration carried out, according to the GOC substantive hearing.