Optometrist Robert King was found not guilty of misconduct and his fitness to practise was not impaired according to a General Optical Council hearing on June 20-21.
The case alleged that at a consultation on February 12 2009 he did not adequately investigate the cause of symptoms of a patient who complained of a grey area in her vision and migraine-like symptoms without a headache. It was alleged that King did not adequately investigate or obtain her history and presenting symptoms and record them, or refer her to another appropriate healthcare professional. It was also alleged that he did not conduct an appropriate visual field test (VFT), he did not take into account her myopia or the presence of a nasal visual field defect in her other eye.
Expert witness Dr Jones gave evidence of six factors that could indicate the presence of a retinal detachment, but in this case, he conceded that only one was present - myopia. There was possibly another present, a detachment in the other eye, but he accepted that King would not have been expected to know of this at the time of consultation.
Finally, the committee noted his evidence that if the matters complained of were as the registrant recorded them in the notes rather than as the patient gave in her evidence, the registrant's actions could not be criticised.
It accepted the patient gave her evidence honestly and in accordance with her recollection of what had taken place, but it had some concerns as to the clarity of her recollection of events two years ago and she accepted that this was difficult.
The committee considered she was mistaken about the manner in which the VFT was conducted. The patient had made no notes of what happened in the consultation until some six months after the event and she had seen up to five professionals in a relatively short period of time.
In conclusion, the committee stated that there was insufficient evidence to find the particulars proved and did not consider it necessary or appropriate to give the registrant a warning.