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.
However, how does the picture look if a wider context of eye care is taken into account? A whole new gamut of risk could be taken into consideration. Perhaps the idea of myopic motorists has not occurred to the Department of Health, isn't that a risk that could be mitigated by optics? Could optics help reduce falls among the elderly with low vision. What about longer term problems such as age related macular degeneration, cataract and glaucoma?
The profession can be proud of its record on risk and whatever revalidation regime is implemented it will be embraced. The real finding is that the profession is capable of doing so much more to reduce the risk the public faces to itself.