Newly qualified “need greater support”

Students and early career professionals should be better prepared for the commercial realities of the sector – a General Optical Council (GOC) thematic review has found.

The GOC instigated the thematic review – examining how commercial practices in primary eyecare might affect patient safety – last year after its 2025 Registrant Workforce and Perceptions Survey and wider engagement revealed registrants’ and other stakeholders’ concerns about the influence of some commercial practices on the ability to deliver safe patient care.

The review considered five key areas:

1. Sales targets and incentives
2. Booking practices
3. Sight testing times
4. Transparency of pricing and NHS financial support
5. Sight tests for young children aged from birth to five years

At a recent GOC council meeting, early findings of the thematic review were shared:

• Patients were satisfied with the service they received but many registrants were concerned about their ability to deliver safe patient care
• There was no direct evidence that commercial practices were causing harm to patients, although a lack of data on patient outcomes made this hard to assess
• There were concerns about registrant welfare including stress and burnout. The council clarified that when registrant welfare was at risk, this was a patient safety concern, and hence a regulatory issue
• Students and early career professionals appeared more affected by these pressures, pointing to the need for greater support both while training and in managing the transition from training to independent practice
• There were barriers to accessing care due to lack of online price transparency and information about eligibility for NHS financial support, a minority of businesses not providing sight tests to young children, and risks around a fear of pressure selling deterring people from routine sight tests
• While setting the right standards and enforcing these were important, culture and leadership were critical. This included creating psychologically safe environments that supported registrants to speak up, including to the GOC

The council also discussed a programme of work for the GOC and the wider sector, including employers, professional bodies, commissioners and NHS bodies.

Planned GOC work includes reviewing the Standards for Optical Businesses and other guidance, working with education providers to better prepare students for the commercial realities of the sector, and strengthening support for registrants to raise concerns.

The full report is expected to be published shortly.