Reducing the risk of a professional conduct investigation

General Optical Council (GOC) head of fitness to practise, Kayleigh Allen, and Optical Consumer Complaints Service (OCCS) professional adviser, Richard Edwards, shared their top tips to avoid a professional conduct investigation at 100% Optical.

Allen highlighted that in 2019 the General Optical Council introduced acceptance criteria, which sets out when the GOC should open an investigation.

Following the introduction of this criteria, the number of cases opened by the GOC steadily dropped. Allen shared that 280 cases were closed at the triage stage in the past year.

She noted that registrants who are the subject of a complaint that is closed at the triage stage may never find out.

“We don’t routinely tell people when a complaint has been made. This is to reduce stress,” she said.

“There might be cases where we do have to engage with the registrant but the majority wouldn’t be spoken to,” Allen highlighted.

If a case is opened following the triage stage, Allen noted that the case will then go to a case examiner who will assess if the matter should appear before a fitness to practise committee.

Allen shared that when case examiners are considering whether to refer a registrant to a fitness to practise committee, they will assess whether there is a realistic prospect of proving the facts alleged against the registrant.

They will also consider whether the facts, if proven, are significant enough to suggest that the registrant’s fitness to practise is impaired to a degree that requires action to be taken against their registration.

Edwards praised the work that the GOC has done to reduce the number of open cases – and consequently the unnecessary anxiety faced by registrants who are notified of cases that will ultimately be closed.

“The GOC have done a remarkable job on moving the dial on the number of cases that are opened,” he said.

Edwards shared that an individual registrant’s chance of receiving a GOC complaint in any given year was around 1.2%. Over the course of a 40-year career, a registrant’s odds of receiving a complaint rise to 47%.

However, Edwards emphasised that an individual’s risk of being struck off over the average career is only 0.96%.

He observed that around half of GOC complaints relate to personal conduct, while half relate to clinical practice.

Sharing his advice for attendees on how to avoid complaints relating to personal conduct, Edwards highlighted that many of these complaints relate to unlawful behaviour – such as fraud, sexual impropriety, racial misconduct and assault.

Turning to clinical practice, he advised attendees not to panic or amend records.

“As soon as you think there might be a risk of a complaint, talk to your defence organisation and let them know,” he said.

“If you’ve made a mistake, be honest about that and demonstrate that you’ve learned from that mistake,” Edwards suggested.

Allen shared with attendees that when the GOC is looking at an error, the focus is on the conduct rather than the clinical effect on a patient.

“We are not looking at the harm when we talk about misconduct,” she said.

She highlighted that honesty is the best policy when it comes to GOC investigations.

“It’s very easy to panic. People are led by fear when they feel out of control in a situation,” Allen shared.