GOC cannot regulate mail order CL sales from overseas

The Council has emphasised to the Department of Health that its regulation of contact lens sales via registered medical practitioners and registered opticians should continue. Also, that contact lens sales should be subject to a specification for a period of one year. 'A full and sufficient specification that is valid for 12 months from fitting would help to ensure the correct lenses are supplied,' the Council told the DoH. This would mean that the patient was examined at annual intervals, and that failure [by a practitioner] to supply in accordance with the specification could be prosecuted as a disciplinary or even a criminal offence. However, the GOC has concluded that contact lens patients who are tempted to buy via the internet or other means from sellers abroad cannot be protected by any new statutory regulation. As optician went to press the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Optician's working party on selling contact lenses via the internet met to discuss the latest situation on this controversial matter. Only this week The Eye Clinic, which has announced plans for a Stock Exchange listing in a high-profile flotation bid (see page 7), said it was considering selling contact lenses over the internet. At last week's GOC meeting it was revealed that registrar Richard Wilshin had been approached by a company that claimed it was about to purchase businesses already supplying contact lenses on the internet to discuss with him the current legal situation on the matter. However, discussion on the eye examination and the Association of Optometrists guidance, as reported last week (News, June 23), did not take place.