Statement on verification of contact lens specifications

Summary

The statement sets out the GOC’s position that it does not intend to pursue sellers who do not comply with contact lens specification verification requirements in relation to copies, so long as specific conditions are met.

Detail

1. Section 27 of the Opticians Act 1989 (‘the Act’) provides that prescription contact lenses can be sold:
· by or under the supervision (1) of a dispensing optician, optometrist or registered medical practitioner; or
· (as long as the user is not under 16 or registered visually impaired) under the general direction of a dispensing optician, optometrist or registered medical practitioner, who need not be on the premises at the time, if the supplier first receives the original specification (2) or verifies a copy (3) of or the particulars (4) of the specification with the prescriber.

2. In order to be supplied with prescription contact lenses, a person must have a contact lens specification which has been issued following a contact lens fitting and is in-date (i.e. has not passed its expiry date – a specification becomes invalid after its expiry date (5)). Where the sale is being made under the general direction (rather than supervision) of a registrant, and a copy of the contact lens specification is provided, section 27(3)(ii) of the Act requires the copy of the specification to be verified with the person who provided the original specification.

3. We do not, on the basis of the information currently available, consider that there is sufficient evidence of risk of harm to the public, or a wider public interest, in prosecuting sellers who do not verify a copy of a contact lens specification provided that the copy of the specification is:

· in-date (i.e. has not passed its expiry date);
· clear;
· does not contain any obvious errors; and
· has not obviously been tampered with.

Therefore, we will not enforce this requirement.

4. Where all of the conditions in paragraph 3 are not met, or where the person has only provided the particulars of a contact lens specification and has not provided either the original or a copy of the original specification, we continue to expect sellers of contact lenses to verify the particulars of a contact lens specification in accordance with section 27(3)(iii) of the Act.

5. We continue to expect registrants to co-operate with all requests for verification.

6. Zero powered contact lenses can be sold only by or under the supervision of a dispensing optician, optometrist or registered medical practitioner. The verification requirement does not apply to zero powered contact lenses. Sales of zero powered contact lenses are not within the scope of this statement.
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(1) Case law and our standards of practice require that the supervisor must be on the premises at the time of the sale, exercising their professional judgement as a clinician and in a position to intervene in the patient’s interests.
(2) A contact lens specification is a written statement of each contact lens fitted sufficient to enable the lens to be replicated (section 25(5)(a) of the Act). It must state the period in which the specification remains valid and its expiry date (section 25(7) of the Act).
(3) A copy can be a physical copy or an electronic copy such as a scan or photograph.
(4) A written or electronic order from the patient, which contains the details that are in the contact lens specification, but does not include the original or a copy of the contact lens specification.
(5) Section 25(8) of the Act.

Published

February 2024