GOC applies brakes on voluntary code

Proposals to defer a voluntary code of practice for online contact lens sellers until 2017/18 were approved at a latest quarterly meeting of the General Optical Council.

It was also decided that the code, part of the GOC’s illegal practice strategy, would no longer include provisions relating to substitution of contact lenses – amid a lack of any current evidence of patients suffering direct harm from substituting lenses.

The decision was hailed by Ron Hamilton, founder of internet contact lens retailer Daysoft, who this week told the Herald Scotland he was ‘delighted at this late change of heart by the GOC’.

Also during last week’s meeting, Council approved draft guidance on consent and on the duty of candour in the profession, as the ‘responsibility to be open, honest and transparent with patients when things go wrong’.