Surgeons must meet standard

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists has developed a set of standards for laser refractive surgery.

The news comes as Optician publishes its sixth survey of clinics in the UK and Ireland finding little change in the number of clinics identified, but a growing number of services on offer such as femtosecond and wavefront technology. See page 24 for details.

Dr Jeremy Prydal, chairman of the laser refractive working group of the Royal College, said: 'The working party felt that current standards of training in laser refractive surgery were not explicit enough and that actual learning outcomes, an assessment and a certificate the public could see were needed.