2.2.3-work within law and guidance Flashcards
What is the GOC?
- Statutory body which regulates dispensing opticians and optometrists (inc student) and bodies corporate carrying on business as optometrists or dispensing opticians.
- Protects the public and promotes high standards of professional conduct and education amongst opticians
What are the GOC standards of practice?
The 19 standards of behaviour and performance expected from all registered optometrists:
1-Listen to patients and ensure that they are at the heart of the decisions made about their care
2-Communicate effectively with your patients
3-Obtain valid consent
4-Show care and compassion for your patients
5-Keep your knowledge and skills up to date
6-Recognise, and work within, your limits of competence
7-Conduct appropriate assessments, examinations, treatments and referrals
8-Maintain adequate patient records
9-Ensure that supervision is undertaken appropriately and complies with the law
10-Work collaboratively with colleagues in the interests of patients
11-Protect and safeguard patients, colleagues and others from harm
12-Ensure a safe environment for your patients
13-Show respect and fairness to others and do not discriminate
14-Maintain confidentiality and respect your patients’ privacy
15-Maintain appropriate boundaries with others
16-Be honest and trustworthy
17-Do not damage the reputation of your profession through your conduct
18-Respond to complaints effectively
19-Be candid when things have gone wrong
List 4 main functions of the GOC
- setting standards for the optical education and training performance and conduct
- approving qualifications leading to registration and maintaining a register of individuals who are qualified, fit to practise
- train or carry out a business for optometrists and dispensing opticians
- investigating and acting where registrants fitness to practise in or carry out a business is impaired
Who developed the code of ethics and guidelines for professional conduct and who uses these guidelines and for what do they use it for
- Developed by the College of Optometrists
- GOC use these guidelines as a standard of fitness to practice
What is the Opticians Act?
Legislation compiled by parliament which gives the GOC the powers to make orders, rules and regulation in relevant areas
List 3 main functions of the opticians act
- To provide for the registration of opticians and the enrolment of bodies corporate carrying on business as opticians (e.g. optometrists, dispensing opticians and anyone who runs a business as an opticians)
- To regulate the practice of opticians
- To impose restrictions on the testing of sight and the supply of optical appliances (to tell us whose legally allowed to test sight and sell glasses, e.g. optom can test sight and not dispensing optician)
What are the sections of the Opticians Act?
5 sections
- The GOC
- Registration and training of opticians 2a. Fitness to Practice
- Disciplinary proceedings 3a. Proceedings and appeals
- Restrictions on testing of sight, fitting of contact lenses, sale and supply of optical appliances and use of titles and descriptions
- Miscellaneous and Supplementary
What does the fitness to practice part of the opticians act regard?
- Deals with matters relating to a registrants (including students) fitness to practice (qualified registrants) and fitness to undertake training (students)
- Procedure to be followed if a registrants fitness to practice is impaired. E.g. Removal from Register
if make mistake as a student, their supervisor has to face a fitness to practice procedure
What does the Proceedings and Appeals part of the opticians act regard?
- Serving Notification
- Procedures to be adopted by the Fitness to Practice and Registration Appeals Committee
if someone is found to have something wrong with their fitness to practice, then this describes what the procedure for notification is
What 4 things can disciplinary proceedings i.e. if your found guilty result in?
- Conditional registration
- Erasure
- Suspension
- Penalty Order
or a combination of these
What does the ‘testing of sight’ section in the opticians act regarding Restrictions on testing of sight, fitting of contact lenses, sale and supply of optical appliances and use of titles and descriptions state
Testing of Sight - Can only be undertaken by a registered optometrist and medical practitioner (inc prescription of glasses)
in the hospital, an orthoptist can do the refraction and the consultant can sign it off = legal because somebody is taking responsibility for that refraction
What does the ‘fitting of contact lenses’ section in the opticians act regarding Restrictions on testing of sight, fitting of contact lenses, sale and supply of optical appliances and use of titles and descriptions state?
Fitting of contact lenses - Can only be undertaken by a registered optometrist, contact lens optician and general medical practitioner
What does the ‘duties to be performed in sight testing’ section in the opticians act regarding Restrictions on testing of sight, fitting of contact lenses, sale and supply of optical appliances and use of titles and descriptions state and list 3 points that it mentions
also name an exception of this
When conducting a sight test, which is defined in law it is the duty of the Optometrist/Doctor to perform, for the purpose of detecting signs of injury, disease or abnormality in the eye or elsewhere
(i) an examination of the external surface of the eye and its immediate vicinity,
(ii) an intra-ocular examination, either by means of an ophthalmoscope or by such other means as the doctor or optometrist considers appropriate,
(iii) such additional examinations as appear to the doctor or optometrist to be clinically necessary
exception:
The provisions of testing sight do not apply where the testing of sight
is carried out by a doctor at a hospital or clinic in the course of diagnosing or treating injury or disease of the eye.
e.g. if someone is at a and e because they have a retinal detachment, then you might not carry out a complete sight test, as just want to get RD treated. so in these cases, we don’t have to test sight as defined in the opticians act.
What 2 things does the ‘duties to be performed on sight testing’ of the Restrictions on testing of sight, fitting of contact lenses, sale and supply of optical appliances and use of titles and descriptions of the opticians act state about once the sight test is done?
Provide the patient with a written statement indicating that an adequate eye examination was carried out and that referral is or is not required
A signed written prescription or if no prescription was required a note to this affect must be issued
List 3 exceptions to the duty to issue a prescription or statement stated by the opticians act
- The doctor or optometrist who has tested the patient’s sight refers the patient to his doctor for further investigation or treatment;
- the sight test was carried out as part of a general medical examination including such an examination for insurance purposes, within the meaning of section 2(1) of the Access to Medical Reports Act 1988, or for employment purposes, within the meaning of section 2(1) of that Act; or
- the patient was resident in a hospital or a clinic, for the purposes of treatment, when his sight was tested
