I have long been mystified by the tendency of some ophthalmic opticians to embellish their names on windows, fascias, notepaper, etc, with a bewildering proliferation of designatory letters. Fortunately, and possibly because of greater professional maturity, the practice is nowadays not so pronounced as it once was, but it persists nonetheless. One has the feeling that more discerning members of the public are liable to view such exhibitionism with a wry smile. The reaction would doubtless be worse were some inquisitive soul to discover that an optician publicly drew attention to his possession of obsolete qualifications or his membership of a non-existent professional body.
The GOC has always been empowered to regulate the qualifications which may appear in the register, but that does not, of course, apply to the personal use of designatory letters for practice purposes. Accordingly it seeks yet more powers to remedy the deficiency. It is one thing, however, for nanny to encourage her charges to look their best in public, but to seek statutory powers to tell them how to dress is palpably absurd.
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