In conversation with various optometric and dispensing colleagues, it appears to me that there is quite a high level of disgruntlement among the profession regarding the effectiveness of those who purport to represent our interests.
This is regrettable given that, in the case of dispensing opticians, this amounts to £290 for full [ABDO] annual membership on top of an annual GOC fee of £320 for full membership.
In addition, lowly dispensing opticians are disadvantaged by not being able to offset their costs for undertaking CET in the way that our optometric colleagues can.
Readers may be interested to know that it is not a requirement of the General Optical Council to be registered with any of the professional examining bodies once GOC registration has been achieved.
The professional bodies may say they are providing in depth CET and this is true.
However, since resigning from ABDO, whose fees I had been paying since the late 1960s, I have found it remarkably easy to fulfill my CET requirement without assistance from such an august body.
Stephen Hopkinson, ex-FBDO, London W1
