GOC says “We regularly hear concerns about commercial practices impacting on patient care in the eye care sector and this has been backed up by the findings of our 2025 registrant survey. Among other findings, 38% of registrants who responded felt pressured to see a high volume of patients every day, impacting their ability to deliver safe care.

One of the issues we are investigating is overbooking or ‘ghost clinics’. These take different forms, but are typically where a business double books patients in a clinic, to mitigate against lost appointments due to patients that don’t attend, which may result in rushed or reduced appointment times.

As part of our thematic review into commercial practices and patient safety, we want to hear your views on the nature and extent of overbooking / ghost clinics. You can find out more in our blog, Commercial practices, patient safety, and ghost clinics.

At the end of our thematic review, we will produce a report with recommendations to address the issues identified. This is an opportunity to have your say and be part of our research.

All questions in this survey are optional.”

Click HERE to Have your say