Duty of Candour Report Jan 2022 – Dec 2022
Duncan and Todd Group
In 2014, the General Optical Council (GOC) signed up to a joint statement with other healthcare regulators which outlined the expectations of professional duty of candour from registered Optometrists and Dispensing Opticians.
Duty of Candour Annual Reporting
To fulfil our duty of candour responsibilities, this report describes the unintended or unexpected incidents that occurred within optometry practice during the last year.
Duty of Candour responsibilities and process.
The Duncan and Todd Group’s policy is that we are open, honest, and transparent about all aspects of patient care. We aim to provide high quality, patient centred eye care.
If we become aware of a situation in which an unintended or unexpected incident occurred in the provision of a patient’s eyecare or things went wrong with a patient’s eyecare, we may have a duty to inform the patient and apologise, regardless of whether a complaint or feedback has been received. This does not necessarily mean that we admit wrong doing.
Any such incidents of this nature should be first discussed with the clinician responsible at the time. After this, Professional Services should be consulted before contact with the patient.
Wherever there are learnings to be had from a situation, this should be communicated across the group. The Duncan and Todd Group policy is to constantly strive to improve our patient experience via openness and honesty.
The Duncan and Todd Group policy is in line with the statutory Organisational Duty of Candour in the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care)(Scotland) Act 2016 (the “statutory duty of candour”) and the General Optical Council’s Professional Duty of Candour in Article 2.1.2 of the Standards for Optical Businesses (the “professional duty of candour”).
Unexpected or Unintended incidents Jan 2022 – Dec 2022
Between 1st of January 2022 and 31st December 2022, there was 1 incident across the group in which the duty of candor applied. This was an unintended and unexpected incident that result in harm as defined in the Act.
Duncan and Todd identified this incident and carried out a formal investigation. This investigation has allowed us to identify improvements which have been implemented across the company.
Type of unexpected or unintended incident |
Number of times this happened |
Someone has died |
0 |
Someone has permanently less bodily, sensory, motor, physiologic or intellectual functions |
0 |
Someone’s treatment has increased because of harm |
1 |
The structure of someone’s body changes because of harm |
0 |
Someone’s life expectancy becomes shorter because of harm |
0 |
Someone’s sensory, motor or intellectual functions is impaired for >28 days |
0 |
Someone experience pain or psychological harm for >28 days |
0 |
A person needed health treatment in order to prevent them dying |
0 |
A person needing health treatment in order to precent other injuries |
0 |
Procedures
During this incident the correct procedure was followed:
- We informed the person affected, apologised to them, and arranged meetings with them.
- Internal senior management reflected in the events, conducted a full investigation, and identified where we could improve policy.
- These findings allowed us to tighten the policy and update staff training which was implemented across the group.
Actions
- Revisit our processes for booking review appointment and reviewing historic records with all optometrists in the business.
- Regular communication with all optometrists on the current guidelines for investigation and onward referral of suspected glaucoma and ocular hypertension.
- Provided CPD on glaucoma and ocular hypertension to all optometrists specifically covering visual fields, optic nerve changes, IOPS and corneal thickness.