In Focus: GOC's Honey Rose sanction overruled

A n appeal brought by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) against the General Optical Council (GOC) Fitness to Practise (FTP) committee’s decision to suspend Honey Rose for nine months has been upheld by the Royal Courts of Justice.

Rose was handed a nine-month suspension without review in December 2020 when a GOC FTP committee found her fitness to practise impaired by virtue of misconduct following a failure to spot papilloedema caused by hydrocephalus in eight-year-old Vinnie Barker in 2012. Barker died of the condition five months after his sight test with Rose.

Following the court’s decision, the case has been referred back to the GOC and a differently constituted FTP committee.