Sometime soon, perhaps as early as this autumn, the General Optical Council is expected to survey its registrants.
Presumably the purpose of the exercise will be to find out what optometrists and dispensing opticians think of the work their regulatory body carries out and what they would like the GOC to be doing more or less of - so it's your chance to make your feelings felt. The relationship between the GOC and the professions has been dominated of late by the introduction of compulsory continuing education and training. This has not been without a little drama but, if the figures published by the GOC and the drop in the number of calls to the Optician office are anything to go by, the first three-year cycle has been a success.
CET is one thing, but what about undergraduates? How have qualifications and scope of training for students been altered to recognise changes in technology and culture? How do students qualify, having only fitted a handful of contact lenses? Where do communication, business and interpersonal skills feature in the modern degree? Recent years have seen the number of optometry students double. What type of students are being attracted? Are there simply too many optometrists being trained?
Then there is the issue of fitness to practise. How often have we seen a transgressor's previously 'unblemished character' wheeled out to secure a slap on the wrist? Further questions on a postcard please.