Over 8,000 General Optical Council (GOC) registrants have yet to meet their Continuing Education and Training (CET) requirements. Currently, only 60 per cent of registrants have met all their requirements with just over two months of the cycle remaining.
Registrants have until 31 December to meet all their CET requirements, but if they fail to do so they will be removed from the register and will no longer be able to practise in the UK. They would also be removed from the NHS Performers’ List.
Registrants must have accepted any pending points in MyCET by 31 December to count towards the 2016-18 cycle. These points cannot be saved to count towards future requirements.
Marcus Dye, GOC Head of Standards and CET, said: “The deadline for the current cycle is quickly approaching. We strongly encourage registrants to plan the rest of their year accordingly in order to meet all their requirements by 31 December and avoid being removed from the register.
“We also want to instil in registrants the importance of logging into their CET record and accepting their points, as although they may have undertaken all the required learning, it will not count until all points have been accepted.”