Nottingham optometrist suspended

The GOC has suspended Nottingham-based optometrist, Nathan Smith, for three months.

A GOC Fitness to Practise Committee found Smith’s fitness to practice impaired by reason of misconduct in relation to his failure to ensure clinical examinations were recorded. Smith also failed to perform a necessary ophthalmoscopy prior to refractive laser eye surgery, before telling a patient that all necessary tests had been completed.

Smith admitted that failing to perform the ophthalmoscopy was the ‘wrong decision’ during the hearing, but explained that he ‘wanted to look competent’ to his patient.

The committee decided that Smith’s conduct was ‘not fundamentally incompatible with registered practice’ and that ‘a sanction of erasure would be disproportionate.’