Complaints from refractive surgery patients
Sasha Rodoy made this Freedom of Information request to General Optical Council Automatic anti-spam measures are in place for this older request. Please let us know if a further response is expected or if you are having trouble responding.
Please provide the following information:
1. Since 2016, how many complaints have been received by the GOC from people with problems after refractive lens and/or laser surgery?
2. How many of these complaints were referred to case examiners?
3. How many of these complaints resulted in FtP hearings for the optometrist and/or business registrant?
4. Are there any complaints made since 2018 that have resulted in the case examiners referring the optometrist and/or business registrant to FtP hearing, yet to be publicly listed?
Thank you
Sasha Rodoy
My Beautiful Eyes Foundation
Dear Sasha,
Thank you for your email dated 16 October 2023, this email formally acknowledges receipt of your request.
Please note that requests under the Freedom of Information Act will receive a response within 20 working days from the day following the date of receipt of your request.
If you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards
Nadia Habib | Information Governance Officer
General Optical Council | 10 Old Bailey | London | EC4M 7NG
Switchboard: 020 7580 3898
Email: [email address] Web: http://www.optical.org/ | Twitter: @GOC_UK
At the General Optical Council we are responsible, forward thinking and principled. Read our mission and values online.
Dear Sasha,
Please see the information you have requested below.
I must inform you that the data may not be entirely accurate as our case management systems have changed since 2016.
In order to provide accurate numbers, we would be required to do a manual check of each case file. However, doing so would exceed a reasonable number of staff and resources allocated to action the request.
1. Since 2016, how many complaints have been received by the GOC from people with problems after refractive lens and/or laser surgery? Response: 92 cases match this criteria (ie problems after refractive lens and/or laser surgery)
2. How many of these complaints were referred to case examiners? Response: 25
3. How many of these complaints resulted in FtP hearings for the optometrist and/or business registrant? Response: 0 (Note: there were a number of referrals by case examiners, but these appear to have been subsequently closed via R16 rather than proceeding to hearings)
4. Are there any complaints made since 2018 that have resulted in the case examiners referring the optometrist and/or business registrant to FtP hearing, yet to be publicly listed? Response: None at present
I hope this answers your request.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards
Nadia Habib | Information Governance Officer
General Optical Council | 10 Old Bailey | London | EC4M 7NG
Switchboard: 020 7580 3898
Email: [email address] Web: http://www.optical.org/ | Twitter: @GOC_UK
At the General Optical Council we are responsible, forward thinking and principled. Read our mission and values online.
1. How many individual optometrists were included in the 92 complaints from refractive lens and/or laser patients since 2016?
2. How many individual business registrants were included in the 92 complaints from refractive lens and/or laser patients since 2016?
3. Since 2015, how many complaints have been made to the GOC concerning Optical Express and/or the company’s optometrists?
4. How many of these complaints were referred to case examiners?
5. How many of these complaints resulted in FtP hearings for the optometrist and/or business registrant?
Thank you
Sasha Rodoy
My Beautiful Eyes Foundation
Dear Sasha,
Thank you for your email dated 13 November 2023, this email formally acknowledges receipt of your request.
Please note that requests under the Freedom of Information Act will receive a response within 20 working days from the day following the date of receipt of your request.
If you have any queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kind Regards
Nadia Habib | Information Governance Officer
General Optical Council | 10 Old Bailey | London | EC4M 7NG
Switchboard: 020 7580 3898
Email: [email address] Web: http://www.optical.org/ | Twitter: @GOC_UK
At the General Optical Council we are responsible, forward thinking and principled. Read our mission and values online.
Dear Sasha,
Thank you for your patience whilst we looked into your query.
Unfortunately, we will have to refuse your request under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.
As a public authority, our cost of resources as per ICO guidance is £450 per request, this means a limit of 18 hours for staff to work on your request. Our staff have calculated that it would take 37 hours to collate this data.
Our historic data is not held on our case management system in the same way as current case data is held, and a lot of the information requested here requires a manual check of old archived case files, which exceeds the appropriate cost limit.
Please note that you have the right to narrow down your request further and I would recommend your new request covers a shorter span of time rather than dating back to 2015/16.
If you have any questions, please contact me.
Kind Regards
Nadia Habib | Information Governance Officer
General Optical Council | 10 Old Bailey | London | EC4M 7NG
Switchboard: 020 7580 3898 | Email: [email address]
Web: http://www.optical.org/ | Twitter: @GOC_UK
Rydym yn hapus i ddelio ag ymholiadau yn y Gymraeg
At the General Optical Council we are responsible, forward thinking and principled. Read our mission and values online.
Thanks Nadia, I have narrowed down five questions to only two.
1. How many individual optometrists were included in the 92 complaints from refractive lens and/or laser patients since 2016?
2. How many individual business registrants were included in the 92 complaints from refractive lens and/or laser patients since 2016?
Thank you
Sasha Rodoy
My Beautiful Eyes Foundation
Dear Sasha,
Thank you for your email.
As I mentioned in my previous email, the reason we refused your original request was due to the span of time that you requested.
To search our historical data from 2016, would still take over 37 hours to collect and this exceeds our appropriate limits of cost and resources as per ICO guidance.
As per my earlier email, my suggestion is for your request to cover a shorter span of time for example from 2020 - 2023. We would be able to accommodate a narrowed down request of this period, within the appropriate cost limits.
Please could you let me know therefore, how you wish to proceed?
Kind Regards
Nadia Habib | Information Governance Officer
General Optical Council | 10 Old Bailey | London | EC4M 7NG
Switchboard: 020 7580 3898 | Email: [email address]
Web: http://www.optical.org/ | Twitter: @GOC_UK
Rydym yn hapus i ddelio ag ymholiadau yn y Gymraeg
At the General Optical Council we are responsible, forward thinking and principled. Read our mission and values online.
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