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SCMP Reporter

SOME opticians may be unable to pass the exams required to register as optometrists, a professional body warned yesterday.

 The revelation comes in the wake of a new law which requires anyone who tests eyes and prescribes glasses or contact lenses to be a registered optometrist by April 1 next year.

 A spokesman for the Optometrists' Board said a committee was reviewing provisional registration.

 But she added: 'We are worried many of the opticians may not be able to pass examinations which qualify them for registered status.

  'Some of them may even have to take their examinations after the deadline if they failed several times.'  But as long as the opticians have applied to register they could continue to practise, she said.

 'We would try our best to assess their registrations and ask qualified ones to take examinations before the end of this year to meet the deadline.'  However, if applicants repeatedly failed examinations, the board would consider them unsuitable and they would be required to leave the profession.

 The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is running a two-month re-training course for opticians with no formal qualifications.

 The course, run by the Department of Optometry and Radiography, includes lectures and practical training, said Dr Osbert Chan Yuen-chung, the department's assistant professor.

 There are 360 students enrolled in the course.

 And some of them said the course gave them a wider knowledge than their apprenticeships.

 '[It] has corrected some of the wrong or ambiguous concepts which were taught by our teachers during apprenticeship,' said Au Tak-lai, 32, a practising optician for 12 years.

 The new regulation aims to safeguard the public by ensuring basic standards and making it easier for people to complain about unprofessional conduct.



Board warns of tough new exam for opticians