Comment: A safe pair of hands

It won't come as a shock to any readers of Optician that General Optical Council registrants were given a glowing report on patient safety at last week's revalidation event (News, page 8) but was the research company's remit wide enough?

The gathering heard all about the low risk eye care practitioners represented to patients in practice but what about the risks posed by everyday living?

It is clear that the optical profession is punching well below its weight in terms of the function it provides. Of course if a research company is brought in to find risk it will find risk somewhere and that is exactly what happened (News 19.02.10). Even while nitpicking its way to highlighting some areas of risk the message was clear. The optical profession's risk to the public is low.