Page 3703 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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The new registration arrangements distinguish initial registration from subsequent streamlined mutual recognition procedures for registered optometrists from participating jurisdictions under the mutual recognition arrangements. In addition to unconditional registration, the board has a discretionary power to register a person with conditions that will limit the person's ability to practise in a way that the Optometrists Board considers safe or appropriate for that person or necessary for the protection of the public.
The Optometrists Board's disciplinary powers have been expanded to provide for a range of uniform sanctions which can be imposed either singularly or in combination on a person's registration as a result of disciplinary action or in cases of impairment. There is a requirement for the board to hold an inquiry prior to imposing any of the expanded range of sanctions on a person's registration. There is also a provision for a person who had conditions imposed on his or her registration under the impairment provisions to request the board to review these conditions. If the board is satisfied that the impairment has lessened or that the person no longer suffers from the impairment, it may remove the conditions or impose new conditions on that person's registration. Where the board refuses to review the conditions imposed on a person's registration, that person has the right of appeal to the ACT Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The transitional provisions ensure continuation of registration for an optometrist registered under the Optometrists Act 1956 on the same terms and subject to the same conditions as those that applied to his or her registration immediately before the commencement of the new provisions. The transitional arrangements also entitle persons who were granted provisional registration under the principal Act to interim registration under the new provisions. These arrangements also provide, where a person has failed to pay the annual fee payable under the principal Act and whose registration was cancelled for failure to pay that fee, for his or her registration to be cancelled for failure to pay the annual fee under the amended Act. The transitional arrangements also provide for the continuation of inquiries and reviews or the investigation of complaints in relation to the registered optometrist's previous conduct which were pending or under way immediately prior to the enactment of the present amendments. Decisions by the Optometrists Board in respect of registration, disciplinary and impairment matters will be subject to appeals to the ACT Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The current Act prohibits the sale of spectacles by a person other than a registered optometrist, except where such spectacles are dispensed in accordance with a prescription written by a medical practitioner or registered optometrist. That provision has been extended to include the prohibition of the sale of contact lenses. With the recent introduction of disposable contact lenses, the danger of contact lenses being sold by people other than appropriately qualified optometrists has emerged as a significant health issue. As well as the damage to eyesight that may arise from incorrect prescriptions, contact lenses have additional physical health risk factors, which include infection and trauma. Therefore, clients who elect to wear contact lenses should be protected similarly to those who wear glasses and, in addition, correctly instructed by an appropriately qualified person in the proper methods of inserting and cleaning contact lenses.
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