New year, new cycle

Just to be absolutely clear, the new year sees the start of a new CET cycle. Despite initial suggestions otherwise, it has now been confirmed that this will be a three-year cycle and so all registrants will have a requirement to achieve a number of points annually to contribute to an overall three year required tally to maintain their place on the GOC register. The current three-year CET cycle will finish on December 31, 2018 and the next cycle will run from January 2019 to December 2021 under the same rules.

There are likely to be changes implemented in the subsequent three year cycle, from 2021, and these may well reflect some of the feedback from the Fit for the Future consultation which took place this autumn. A healthy 994 people took part and generally there was a positive attitude towards the current CET scheme, though many stakeholder organisations were concerned that some aspects of the scheme ‘may not be suitable in the future.’ Perhaps of most significance was a call for a more central role for peer review which is likely to involve dispensing opticians too in future. Other likely change will need to reflect the ever-evolving nature of clinical practice.