GOC strikes off Durham optometrist

Durham-based optometrist Bryan Ainley has been erased from the GOC registers by a fitness to practice committee.

The committee found Ainley’s fitness to practice impaired by virtue of misconduct that related to his failure to adequately assess patients and maintain an adequate standard of record keeping.

The panel determined that Ainley’s conduct, whether by wilful neglect, or recklessness, was far below that of a reasonably competent optometrist. The committee chair said it was satisfied that a finding of misconduct was justified in this case, given that the registrant’s inability to conduct basic optometric testing meant that a safe eye test may not have been possible.