Suspension extended

A General Optical Council (GOC) fitness to practise committee handed optometrist James Hands a further six month suspension at a review hearing last week.

Hands was suspended at an early review hearing in August 2011, called after he was found to have treated a patient while under a conditional registration order made in November 2010 following the registrant's suspended custodial sentence.

The committee said it had to act on the evidence placed before it on the day of the hearing, but also took the history of the case into account and whether the sanctions it had imposed had been effective. It was 'unconvinced' that the registrant had developed an insight into his conduct, after Hands stated his early referral to the GOC was 'over the top'.