Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-16.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to monitor and control eye surgery.
Alistair Burt
There are currently no plans to bring forward new legislative proposals for regulating refractive laser eye surgery.
Providers of laser eye surgery are required to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as this is a regulated activity. All providers of regulated activities under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 must be registered with the CQC and meet the new fundamental standards of safety and quality that came onto force on 1 April this year. The CQC has a range of enforcement actions that it can take if providers do not meet the fundamental standards.
Doctors performing laser eye surgery in the United Kingdom must also be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). All registered doctors are expected to be familiar with the GMC’s publication Good medical practice and supporting guidance, which describes what is expected of them. This document makes clear that medical doctors must recognise and work within the limits of their competence
Further work is underway to improve the delivery, safety and standards for patient information regarding these procedures and this is being led by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists.
