GOC suspends Barnet DO

Barnet-based dispensing optician Gurmit Bansal has been suspended by the GOC for 12 months after his fitness to practise was found to be impaired by reason of misconduct.

Bansal was alleged to have supplied patients with cheaper and/or inferior quality spectacles to those originally paid for but did not refund them with the difference in price.

The Committee noted the conduct only stopped when a whistleblower intervened and as a result of Bansal’s actions there was a significant financial gain to the practice, at patients’ expense.