Clinical guidance
  • Quality & safety
  • Refractive surgery

Professional standards for refractive surgery

  • Last updated or reviewed: 1 December 2024
  • First published: 2 April 2017
Professional-standards-for-refractive-surgery (PDF)

These professional standards are for surgeons and healthcare professionals involved in the care of patients undergoing refractive surgery. They cover professional competence, safety, consent, continuity of care, teamwork, record keeping, maintaining trust and financial dealings.

This guidance sets out the professional standards expected of surgeons and healthcare teams delivering refractive surgery. It builds on GMC guidance and outlines requirements for clinical practice, patient consent, safety, governance and continuity of care. The document emphasises surgeon responsibility for patient outcomes and supports consistent, high-quality refractive surgery services.

Additional information and resources

Additional information and resources

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Patients & public

Our information and resources are here to help you understand more about eye care and the College's work. They should be used alongside advice from your healthcare professionals.

Refractive surgery data set

Clinical dataset for refractive surgery services, it defines standard variables for patient details, assessment, surgery and patient-reported outcomes.