Optometrist erased from GOC register

Ricky Patel, an optometrist based in Ilford, has been erased from the registers following an earlier suspension.

He has been banned from practising as an optometrist in the UK after a GOC Fitness to Practise Committee found his fitness to practise impaired by virtue of a failure to remediate deficiencies in his knowledge and practice.

It followed an earlier suspension for failing to conduct a proper and adequate eye examination, making inadequate records and dealing inadequately with the onward referral process.

‘Although the Registrant’s deficiencies were remediable, he had failed to attempt remediation or show any insight, despite having been given two years to do so,’ the committee chair said.