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Premature proposal

I had hoped that the changes at the top of the General Optical Council would see a return to more conventional ways of conducting the Council's decision-making process than through the pages of the optical journals. The report on the introduction of contact lens continuing education and training (optician, News, March 26), shows this is not to be. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the arguments, little sensitivity seems to have been demonstrated in dealing with the proposed introduction of the first statutory CET scheme.

It also seems quite extraordinary that the GOC, a body which is charged with the audit of the profession, should be prepared to countenance a scheme whereby it would list contact lens practitioners and fitters who said that they would undertake CET rather than those who had proved that they had undertaken relevant CET. This hardly seems likely to promote public confidence. Things have moved on since this was first mooted and in view of the Government's stance on quality in health care it would seem more sensible to abandon the current proposals and introduce a full-blown compulsory CET scheme including, but not exclusive to, contact lens work.

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