At last week's disciplinary committee meeting at the General Optical Council, the committee heard that Fiona Watt, who practises in south London, made a domiciliary visit on August 13 1998 to the Heathland Court Nursing Home. She examined four patients, including 91-year-old Edith Daniels, but no prescriptions were issued. Ms Watt told the hearing that the test on Ms Daniels was incomplete, and that she believed the patient was fit enough to be brought to the practice where she could be examined using more sophisticated equipment. However, Ms Daniels did not attend the practice, and Ms Watt sent out a &\#163;40 bill, her standard fee for a domiciliary visit. Ms Daniels' nephew, forensic physician Dr Peter Green, refused to pay the bill because there was no prescription issued, but Ms Watt threatened to sue through the county court. In evidence, Dr Green said that Ms Watt warned him that she went 'unwaveringly' to court when bills were not paid. Ms Watt said this was untrue, and that she had only gone to court in this way once before. She said that she was now aware that she had breached the regulations by not issuing prescriptions for other people she saw at the nursing home, but this was because she had forgotten the conduct rules, and there was no ill intent. Chairman of the Association of Optometrists, Donald Cameron, appeared as a character witness in support of Ms Watt, whom he had known for 13 years. The committee said that it was concerned that professional standards had been inadequate but did not think that the mistakes made constituted misconduct.