GOC urged to speed up FTP decisions

An annual report by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has expressed concern about a decline in the median time the General Optical Council takes to make an interim order decision.

The health body said the GOC performance in the period between receiving a complaint and an interim order being made must improve in order to meet future standards.

New fitness to practise (FTP) rules rolled out by the GOC in April were expected to lead to improved performance though, it was noted.

GOC chair Gareth Hadley said: ‘We are very encouraged to receive a positive report from the Professional Standards Authority across all of our core functions. However we are determined to drive further improvement, particularly in realising the benefit of our new FTP rules to help speed up the time in which we deal with complaints.’