Practitioner to face charges at hearing

A dispensing optician will be accused of serious professional misconduct at a hearing of the General Optical Council's disciplinary committee later this month.

Airdrie-based professional Hugh Ross will face a disciplinary panel regarding incidents alleged to have taken place between August 1999 and November 2002.

The basis of the charge relates to six patients.

It is claimed that in October 2000 Ross claimed on a HES(S)(P)1 form that a patient had been supplied with a pair of spectacles eligible for a small frame supplement when new lenses had been fitted to the patient's current spectacle frames.

Later that month it is alleged Ross claimed on a GOS(S)4 form that the patient had been supplied with replacement spectacles when he had been supplied with a second pair of spectacles.

Later that year, in December 2000, it is alleged that Ross used a GOS(S)4 form to claim that the patient had been supplied with replacement spectacles but, contrary to regulations, did not make a written record of the replacement.

And in May 2002, Ross claimed on a GOS(S)4 form that the patient had been supplied with replacement spectacles when a new right lens had been fitted to the patient's current spectacles.

Other allegations on the charge sheet relate to five other unnamed patients, some of whom Ross is said to have claimed for, when no spectacles were supplied, as well as other accusations of a similar nature.

The hearing is scheduled to take place at the General Dental Council's hearings facilities in London on Tuesday September 27 starting at 10am.