OO suspended for six months

Optometrist Waqar Ahmad Salim has been suspended for six months for a conviction and related misconduct.

A GOC fitness to practise committee heard how Salim was convicted for inflicting grievous bodily harm in 2010, when he was sentenced to a community order to perform 200 hours of unpaid work.

Salim had also failed to declare being the subject of a police investigation in an application for retention form 2010/11. He told the hearing he had merely skim-read the guidance and had not appreciated that he was required to declare his involvement in a police investigation. Having been arrested for the offence of causing grievous bodily harm in September 2009, he had been released on conditional police bail while it was investigated.