Public 'let down' by CL rules

The impact of the new legislation on contact lens supply due to take effect on June 30 will depend, in part, on how the regulations are interpreted.
This was the conclusion of 'Breakfast with Hodd', a special session at last weekend's BCLA conference that brought together representatives of the profession and industry.
Opening the session, chairman Nigel Burnett Hodd warned that the profession was faced with 'retail price meltdown', after the separation of the sale and fitting of contact lenses. He claimed that practitioners stood to lose up to 50 per cent of their contact lens sales to alternative supply routes and all they would have left to sell was their professional expertise and time.
Commenting on whether practitioners would be obliged to verify or supply patients' specifications if approached by suppliers such as Tesco, Dr Rob Hogan, professional services director at Dollond & Aitchison and chairman of the College of Optometrists professional standards committee, said: 'It's all down to interpretation and this is one thing the GOC is not supplying.
'The GOC has asked the College and ABDO - through their professional guidance - to help the profession steer their way through this. But there is a world of difference between interpretation and guidance. The GOC either needs to come up with an interpretation or endorse College and ABDO guidance,' said Dr Hogan.
'Public safety are the last two words you will ever hear in these discussions. That is where we have let the public down, or the GOC, in many ways, has let us down. The paradox is that they've included plano contact lenses in the legislation but at the same time they've opened the bottom of the bucket and let everything else fall out.'
Dr Hogan said that interpretation of the legislation would hinge on two terms used in the Act: the meaning of 'generally directing' (rather than 'supervising') a contact lens sale and the requirement to make arrangements for 'aftercare'.
Defending the GOC's position, Council member Donald Cameron said that the legislation had been through several drafts and was subject to tight deadlines. 'By the time it filters through all these different filters it comes out a very different animal.' 

A study by Stapleton et al of the incidence of contact lens-related microbial keratitis (MK) in Australia, presented at the conference, found that among daily wear contact lens users identified as having moderate or severe presumed MK, those who purchased their lenses over the internet had a 5.5 times higher risk of having a severe infection than those who did not purchase by this route. A full report will appear in the July 1 issue.