Eyesight: Surgery

(asked on 7th December 2015) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department has taken to assure the public of the safety and quality of laser eye surgery.


Answered by
Alistair Burt Portrait
Alistair Burt
This question was answered on 14th December 2015

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 Care Quality Commission and meet the new fundamental standards of safety and quality that came into 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.


It has now been agreed that work to improve the delivery, safety and standards for patient information for laser eye surgery will be taken forward separately from the work to implement the Keogh Review, and that, as the professional body for setting the standards of practice for refractive procedures, the Royal College of Ophthalmologists will lead on this work.

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