Public Health Regulation 2022

A health practitioner must not sell or supply an optical appliance, other than cosmetic contact lenses, to a person unless the practitioner does so in accordance with a prescription from a person lawfully authorised to prescribe the optical appliance.

Note—

See the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW), section 122 for the persons who can lawfully prescribe optical appliances in New South Wales.

A health practitioner must not sell or supply contact lenses to a person unless the practitioner—

was licensed under the Optical Dispensers Act 1963 immediately before its repeal, or

has a Certificate IV in optical dispensing or an equivalent qualification.

A health practitioner who sells or supplies contact lenses to a person must provide the person with written information about the care, handling and wearing of contact lenses, including advice about possible adverse reactions to wearing contact lenses.

This section does not apply to the sale or supply of the following—

handheld magnifiers,

corrective lenses designed for use only in diving masks or swimming goggles,

ready-made spectacles that—

are designed to alleviate the effects of presbyopia only, and

comprise 2 lenses of equal power, being a power of plus one dioptre or more but not exceeding plus 3.5 dioptres.

In this section—

cosmetic contact lenses means contact lenses that are not designed to correct, remedy or relieve a refractive abnormality or defect of sight.

optical appliance has the same meaning as in the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (NSW), section 122.