DO faces two years of random drug tests

A cocaine-using dispensing optician has been found guilty of misconduct and given a conditional registration order for 24 months in which he will face a programme of random drug tests.

Nathan Thomas Ryan, from Chester, who had worked at Specsavers' Birkenhead branch admitted using £1,200 worth of the drug in a week during a three-week absence from work (News, June 16 2006). He was dismissed for gross misconduct in November 2005.

Last week the GOC's fitness to practise committee found that the fitness of Ryan to practise as a dispensing optician was impaired. 'Use of Class A drugs on a routine basis for an extended period by a registered professional caring for patients is a most serious matterAccordingly, this Committee must send a clear signal to emphasise to both public and the profession that appropriate standards of behaviour must be maintained and that the use of controlled substances by registrants is completely unacceptable.'