January
The year begins with a husband and wife practice team who were caught up in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami telling their experiences... The AOP urges practitioners not to complete their GOC registration documents in a row over information disclosure... MPs' disagreements over cataract surgery figures set the tone for the coming General Election...
Belfast stages its first Eyecare 3000 event... An optometrist and his receptionist are accused of the murder of the optometrist's wife... ABDO sees no reason why its members should not complete their GOC renewal forms... Advanced Laser Eye Clinic is warned by the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland about its advertising... Scotland's government meets with the profession to discuss the future of eye care north of the border...
February
Which? magazine attacks laser eye clinics' advice... The OptiMunich show finds the German market on the road to recovery... Optrafair organisers report the Birmingham show is almost fully booked with exhibitors for 2005... The GOC renewal form saga ends after a revised form is produced...
MPs call on a Channel Islands VAT loophole being used by opticians to be closed... The profession defends its pricing after a Daily Mail article claims high street outlets use massive mark-ups... The latest in gadgetry, the Thump sunglass-cum-MP3-player, is launched by Oakley... An 'opticians ebay', dedicated to be a marketplace for the profession, is launched by a Specsavers partner... MPs aim to tighten regulations on laser eye surgery...
March
Suppliers' price rises should be welcomed, Sight Care delegates hear... A West Midlands optometrist wins a court case against his lover who could have cost him 26,000... The wide-ranging changes to the Opticians Act are debated in the House of Commons before being passed into law...
Politician David Blunkett agrees to speak at the global Vision 2005 event to be held in London in April... Professional bodies meet with CET management company Vantage to discuss confusion over the online scheme... The shortlist for optician's 2005 awards is released... David Hewlett swaps his civil service role at the DoH's ophthalmic services unit for FODO where he is appointed as chief executive... In the run-up to the General Election, practitioners are given advice on how to influence MPs...
April
Fashion retailer Next denies it is about to move into prescription eyewear... At the Vision 2005 conference health minister Rosie Winterton extends optical pilot projects for the management of cataract, glaucoma, AMD and low vision... Charity RNIB warns that sight problems will double in the next two decades... Boots Opticians offers locums free CET...
Fully-booked Optrafair maintains visiting attendance figures of the previous show, and there is talk of a London-based event for 2006... Concern is raised at the show that practitioners will not be able to carry over more than six CET points from the first half of 2005... Impressionist Alistair MacGowan presents the optician awards, with a fire scare and three opera singing waiters among the surprises for the 400 guests... Tesco announces it is to double its opticians offer during the year...
May
An Optician survey discovers that internet retailing is driving down the price of contact lenses just when independent practitioners are facing higher wholesale costs... China's $1.34bn eyewear market will grow by 40 per cent by 2010 a report claims... The CET points wrangle is over, with the GOC allowing 24 general credits and 12 specialist credits to be carried over from 2004-2005...
Boots Opticians starts a drive to encourage professional staff to become store managers, but some call the offer a mixed blessing... A contact lens price war looms as supermarkets Asda and Tesco gear up to make big price cuts following new regulations... Laser eye surgery company Ultralase is sold to a Spanish cosmetics group...
June
Specsavers Opticians expands into the Norwegian optical market... The parents of murdered optometrist Giles Van Colle launch their High Court case against Hertfordshire Police, claiming the force did not protect their son... The BCLA's clinical conference and exhibition attracts record numbers of delegates to Brighton...
Dublin is the next new venue for the expanding Eyecare 3000 event... Optrafair organisers the Federation of Manufacturing Opticians decide that a London 2006 exhibition cannot be sustained by the current economic climate... The National Consumer Council applauds retail optics as 'an exemplar of a deregulated retail sector' bringing improved consumer choice and lower prices... 
July
Tesco announces its entry into the contact lens market and Asda responds by slashing its contact lens prices... Specsavers acquires Danish group Louis Nielsen, which has a 10 per cent value share of the £236.5m Danish optical market, with plans to double the group's outlets within three to five years... Scotland's new Health Bill is approved by the Scottish Parliament, securing free eye tests for patients in Scotland from 2007...
Luxottica is the first optics company to invest in China with the acquisition of leading Beijing optical chain Xueliang Optical... Fashion house Next launches a prescription eyewear range in its latest directory... Dollond & Aitchison makes 90 of its dedicated contact lens opticians redundant in a major restructuring of its contact lens services...
Dispensing optician Zahir Abrahim is restored to the Register six years after he was convicted of fraud... The profession unites against Government proposals to overhaul the GOS... Leading contact lens companies refute claims made in the Daily Mail that they can con patients by charging higher prices for long-life lenses that are nearly identical to one-day alternatives...
August
Metzler International UK Ltd goes into administration with the loss of nearly 20 jobs after its parent company Moulin Global Eyecare went into provisional liquidation earlier in the month... Spectacles belonging to Beatles legend John Lennon are auctioned for £55,000 by Cooper Owen in London...
The GOC defends its role in the health service and highlights improvements to patient safety systems as the Government ponders on making cutbacks in professional regulatory bodies... Over 300 practitioners are struck off the Register by the GOC for failing to return forms declaring they are insured...
September
Boots announces its decision to sell contact lenses via its pharmacy outlets... Health minister Rosie Winterton launches the GOS review causing outrage throughout the profession... Optometry professor Shahina Pardhan at Anglia Polytechnic University is awarded an Asian Jewel Award for her contribution to healthcare and education in the UK and overseas...
Argos halts the sale of plano contact lenses after optician informs the giant retailer of Section 60 amendments to the Opticians Act... National Eye Week kicks off on the 12th with a focus on screen fatigue, dry eye and children's vision... The RNIB launches a campaign to increase awareness of the link between smoking and sight loss...
October
Optometrist Narendra Tailor is sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife and hiding her body with the help of his receptionist... Dollond & Aitchison wins the regional National Training Award for outstanding achievement in the West Midlands... The 18th International Optical Fair Tokyo boasts a 70 per cent rise in overseas exhibitors and attracts 16,000 visitors...
The National Optometric Conference in York marks the launch of the AOP, FODO and ABDO campaign against the Health Improvement and Protection Bill... Scottish Parliament unveils the new NHS optometry contract to much acclaim from the profession in Scotland... British companies enjoy success at Silmo, further cementing the case for exhibiting at the Paris show...
November
The profession receives positive signals from the DoH on the future of GOS following its meeting with health minister Rosie Winterton... Bausch & Lomb UK and The Norville Group support independent practices by offering them free membership to the value of £100,000 to the Independent Marketing Partnership support group... GPs are in full favour of optometrists prescribing ocular therapeutic drugs, a survey conducted by optician and sister publication Doctor reveals...
Charities the RNIB and the Macular Disease Society criticise optometrists and GPs for not giving urgent referrals to patients with wet age-related macular degeneration at a meeting with MPs at Westminster... The Office of Fair Trading accuses Oakley and the House of Fraser of fixing the price of Oakley sunglasses at the department store...
Refractive clinics cut surgery charges for a third year running, an exclusive optician survey on the laser market reveals... The GOC warns that practitioners who continue to use paper-based CET records rather than the internet will pay £50 extra on their GOC registration fee for 2006...
December
The 2005 Optician salary survey reveals the average optical salary across all job titles is £34,300, nearly £2,000 less than three years ago, with dispensing opticians in multiple practice seemingly the hardest hit... A locum optometrist in Northern Ireland is under investigation after questions were raised on 'quality of care', with more than 1,000 care home patients offered re-examinations by the Eastern Health Board...
Optometry Scotland criticises the Scottish Executive for stopping screening for colour blindness at primary schools... City University opens its multi-million pound Henry Wellcome Vision Research Laboratories... Alcon UK temporarily relocates after the Buncefield petrochemical plant explosions in Hemel Hempstead... Tough trading in the high street has resulted in compulsory redundancies at the century-old lens business Norville...