DO has no case to answer

An unnamed dispensing optician brought before the General Optical Council after his local health board made complaints over his practice has been told there is no further case to answer by a fitness to practise committee.

The registrant, a DO first registered with the GOC in 1981, was a subject of a number of complaints by his local health board. These included concerns over inappropriate prescribing of tinted lenses to children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), worries that he was acting outside his competence and allegations of poor record keeping.

The committee commissioned research into the role of coloured and tinted lenses in children with ASD, which was said to show no clinical evidence to support their use and the committee said recommending them for children with the disorder was inappropriate. However, it added that in the absence of evidence that significant harm would be made to patients, no order was made.