GOC suspends William Hay

Aberdeen-based optometrist William Hay has been suspended from the General Optical Council’s (GOC) register for nine months by a fitness to practise committee.

The committee found his fitness to practise impaired by reason of misconduct in relation to his failure to conduct an adequate eye test, refer a patient for adequate treatment or maintain adequate records.

In its report the GOC added that ‘the consequences of the registrant’s failures in this case resulted in extremely serious harm to a patient’. The regulator said Hay failed to identify the signs of a sight threatening condition which a practitioner would encounter on a regular basis.