Durham optometrist Alan Young has been suspended for 18 months by a General Optical Council fitness to practise committee after it was alleged that a number of his domiciliary patients had not been provided with spectacles they had paid for.
The GOC said investigations into Young’s conduct began in January 2014 after it received complaints that patients had not received spectacles and could not contact the registrant to find out why. The complainants then contacted the GOC to tell it that the registrant had since been in contact and they had been supplied with glasses. Details were passed to the police, who decided to take no further action against the registrant.
Further similar complaints were made recently and the GOC said Young had placed vulnerable patients at risk both financially and medically. It added that the evidence suggested a pattern of behaviour had emerged.
In handing out sanction, the committee said it considered imposing conditions such as supervised practice, but said this was already in place from a previous substantive hearing in October 2013.