GOC praised for fitness to practise record

The General Optical Council was praised last week by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) for its processes in investigating complaints about the fitness to practise of registrants.

A CHRE audit of the investigation processes concluded that the GOC 'deals with fitness to practise cases well' and 'demonstrates a commitment to quality and fairness, and to protecting the public'. It added that cases were dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner.

Areas of good practice were:

The CHRE commended the GOC for taking prompt action to review and improve its processes, having identified two areas of potential risk in its audit. GOC chief executive and registrar Dian Taylor said: 'We are confident that the CHRE's findings will help to ensure that the public, patients and GOC registrants have confidence that these processes and their outcomes are fair, transparent, and stand up to independent scrutiny. We will build on this success by continuing to improve and modernise.'