Registration demand causes uproar at AOP

The AOP has urged its members not to complete this year's GOC registration documents.

The call, which could seriously disrupt the 2005 renewal timetable, is an unhappy start to the year in the relationship between the Association and the regulatory body for UK opticians.

In all, 16,000 registrants are being asked to renew in the next two months, many of them optometrists.

In its statement headed 'GOC renewal forms cause furore', the AOP takes issue with the inclusion of an additional set of declarations in the latest renewal documents, including criminal convictions, and professional indemnity insurance. The Association has stated that at present the GOC has no right to request this information.

However, the GOC has hit back stating that the renewals are for the year beginning April 1 2005, when the Council  believes it will have increased responsibilities - including the right to ask registrants to make fitness to practise declarations. The GOC said it had received backing from the Department of Health to include the questions, and the AOP was involved in a 2004 consultation process on the matter.

A spokesman for the GOC said it had asked the DoH repeatedly whether it was appropriate to ask professionals in advance of its new powers on these 'key issues' and the DoH had given its agreement on the proposal.

'Their advice was that we should include it in advance of our gaining the powers, and it was appropriate to ask for this information from April 1. That is the period the registration year starts from, therefore the individuals currently renewing their registration are renewing it from that time - April 1 2005 to March 31 2006 - and this declaration is in respect of that application.'

However, the AOP said this week it was 'protesting at the requests and advises its members not to fill in the declarations.

'There are four declarations which the GOC asks its applicants to sign: the first is a declaration of previous convictions; the second asks for any adverse findings from a body which regulates a health or social care profession to be disclosed; the third is a declaration of physical and mental health; and the fourth requires registrants to declare details of their professional indemnity insurance.

'The AOP is raising the matter with the GOC, because the GOC does not yet have the right to demand such declarations from its registrants.'

Nevertheless, the GOC spokesman said he was 'flabbergasted that there is any suggestion that we're trying to pull a fast one'.

He could not comment, however, on the implications for the profession, and whether it could jeopardise the registration process.

The GOC has informed registrants to return completed forms no later than March 15.