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The latest inspection report of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) revealed that nine pharmacies did not meet their standards out of 52 pharmacies that were inspected between January 2023 and May 2023. Pharmacies are inspected on five principles - Governance, Staff, Premises, Services including medicines management and Equipment and facilities. Out of nine, eight pharmacies did not meet GPhC standard of governance which is defined to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public. Six pharmacies did not meet the GPhC standard of principle four which defines the way in which pharmacy services, including the management of medicines and medical devices, are delivered safeguards the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public. The purpose of these standards is to create and maintain the right environment, both organisational and physical, for the safe and effective practice of pharmacy. The standards apply to all pharmacies registered with GPhC.

The pharmacy regulator can hold hearings and meetings either remotely or in-person in future as the Council of the GPhC has agreed to a change in its rules. The rules are expected to come into force on 1 October 2022. Until the rules and new policy and guidance come into force, the GPhC will continue to only hold remote hearings with the consent of the person concerned and/or their legal representative. Following positive feedback from those taking part in remote hearings, the GPhC consulted on a proposed permanent change to its rules so it could continue to hold hearings remotely in the future, when it is fair and appropriate to do so. The proposal to continue remote hearings, including fitness to practise hearings, received wide support with 78 per cent of respondents agreeing. "During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and restrictions we had to hold many meetings and hearings remotely by videolink. As such we were granted - along with other regulators - a temporary provision to enable us to do this and carry out our statutory role," Duncan Rudkin, chief executive of the GPHC, said.

New legislative orders approved by the Privy Council will give the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) powers to set professional standards for Responsible Pharmacists, Superintendent Pharmacists and Chief Pharmacists. The Pharmacy (Preparation and Dispensing Errors - Hospital (and Other Pharmacy Services) Order 2022 and the Pharmacy (Responsible Pharmacists, Superintendent Pharmacists etc.) Order 2022 have been published and are expected to come into force in December 2022. Trevor Patterson, Chief Executive of the Pharmaceutical Society NI said: "We have been working with our colleagues in the GPhC and Government for some time on these two pieces of important legislation and we are delighted they have now reached the statute books. "Both Orders enable and enhance the powers we, and the GPhC, have to define the roles and responsibilities of Responsible, Superintendent and Chief Pharmacists, respectively. They also create protections against criminal prosecution for hospital pharmacists where an inadvertent error is made either in dispensing or assembly, in certain defined circumstances, similar to the protections available to colleagues working in community/registered pharmacy settings. Provisions that allow the appointment of a Deputy Registrar for our organisation will also be introduced.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has launched a new draft 'Equality Guidance' for pharmacies to tackle discrimination and make sure that everyone can access safe and effective person-centred pharmacy care. GPhC's consultation is seeking views on "the structure and language of the guidance, if anything is missing and the impacts on patients and members of the public, pharmacy staff, pharmacy owners, and individuals or groups sharing any of the protected characteristics." The regulator said the draft guidance is designed to support pharmacy owners to: demonstrate that they are meeting our standards for registered pharmacies fulfil their legal and regulatory duties in relation to equality help protect the rights of individuals advance equal opportunities for staff, patients and the wider public help improve the experience and healthcare outcomes of patients and members of the public.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Fitness to Practise Committee has removed a pharmacy technician from Register after been found guilty of possessing 'indecent photographs of a child'. Graeme Arthur, a pharmacy technician first registered with GPhC on 1 September 2019, under the registration number 5039154, was found guilty at Peterlee Magistrate's Court in August 2022. He received an 18-month Community Order, and is subject to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 5 years, He was also ordered to undertake a period of rehabilitation activity for 40 days. In the remote video linking hearing held on 2 - 3 May, the Fitness to Practise Committee found Arthur's fitness to practise to be currently impaired on grounds of protection of the public and in the wider public interest of declaring and upholding the Standards of the profession and maintaining public confidence in the reputation of the profession. The committee considers this to be a serious conviction for an offence which has included possession of the most serious category of images of sexual abuse of children. It said: "Although Mr Arthur had no direct contact with the children concerned, the nature of the abuse is that it thrives on the demand from those who search for and view the images online. As such, children come to actual harm indirectly through the activity of someone viewing and possession of images of sexual abuse."

The implementation of the 2017 standards for the initial education and training of pharmacy technicians (IETPT) has improved the performance and preparedness for practice among recently registered pharmacy technicians and the wider workforce, according to a new study. Results of the 2023 research study commissioned by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) showed that 72 per cent of pharmacy technicians felt "well prepared" for practice after training. More number of pharmacy technicians in the community pharmacy expressed readiness for practice (82 per cent) than their peers in the hospital pharmacy (64 peer cent). Led by the Centre for Pharmacy Workforce Studies (CPWS) at the University of Manchester and the consultancy service, ICF, the study involved 142 recently registered pharmacy technicians and 21 employers and supervisors of trainees. Overall, 96 per cent of the surveyed respondents believed that the course effectively covered person-centred care, professionalism and professional knowledge and skills.

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has published the results of the common registration assessment for aspiring pharmacists held on 2 November, 2023. An overall pass rate of 66 per cent was recorded this year, as compared to 56 per cent in 2022 and 61 per cent in 2021. A total of 1,067 candidates took the registration assessment, held jointly by the GPhC and Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI), of which 700 candidates cleared the assessment In 2022, 937 candidates sat the registration assessment of which 525 passed the assessment. Commenting on the results, GPhC Director of Education and Standards, Mark Voce, said: "I would like to congratulate all those who passed the November registration assessment and I look forward to them joining our register to continue to the next stage of their career. "There will be candidates who unfortunately did not pass the assessment. If this is the case, the information on our website outlines all the possible options of what to do next.

Online pharmacies have to operate from bricks & mortar premises that are registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council, but recent cases show that, in reality, the practices of online pharmacies are often very different to other pharmacies, and the regulation of online pharmacies is also different - and evolving as issues arise. For a start, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is only one of the regulators taking an interest in online pharmacy services. Other regulators include the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which enforces the advertising and promotion of medicines, and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which regulates prescribing services. The different regulation of online pharmacies is attributable to the higher risk to patients and the public from medicines bought online. These risks often arise from a combination of patients who do not tell the truth in order to obtain medicines and the nature of a transaction in which a pharmacist does not see patients face-to-face. "The GPhC has strong enforcement powers that it uses when it considers its premises standards have not complied with." However, there are also things that go wrong because pharmacists have simply failed to act professionally or take sufficient care, as well as cases where things have gone wrong through misfortune.

The professional leadership body for pharmacists has urged the General Pharmaceutical Council's (GPhC) to make it mandatory to have a chief pharmacist within organisations to ensure transparency for patients, the public and pharmacy staff. On 23 January, the GPhC launched a consultation seeking views on the new draft Standards for Chief Pharmacists it has developed to strengthen pharmacy governance. These standards outlined the professional responsibilities and qualifications required by a chief pharmacist to support their organisation and its staff to deliver "safe and effective" pharmacy services. The pharmacy regulator highlighted the importance of having a registered chief pharmacist meeting these standards in hospitals (or relevant settings) to benefit from the new legislation regarding accidental errors. In response to the consultation, the RPS expressed that while meeting these standards could enhance pharmacy governance, they may not provide the framework needed to fully support staff in reporting and learning from errors.

The Council of Pharmaceutical Society NI (PSNI) has introduced an 8-week public consultation on proposed Guidance on Pharmacy Staffing Levels within registered premises. The principle-based Guidance seeks to assist Pharmacy Owners and Superintendents to ensure that each pharmacy has enough appropriately skilled and qualified staff to provide safe and effective pharmacy services to the public. All registered pharmacies will have to meet the standards set out in the Premises Standards, when commenced. PSNI said: "The proposed Guidance should also help ensure a working environment that will facilitate pharmacists to meet their professional obligations under the Professional Standards of Conduct, Ethics and Performance for Pharmacists in Northern Ireland (2016)." "Whilst other health regulators have primary responsibility for systems regulation outside of regulated premises, we consider that the principles outlined in this Guidance, will be helpful for managers working with pharmacy teams in different settings."

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has removed a pharmacist from its register who black-marketed 'zolpidem' along with another pharmacist between 2015 and 2016. Dean Zainool Dookhan, a pharmacist first registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain on 18 October 2004 and whose registration was later transferred to the General Pharmaceutical Council under registration number 2059808, was jailed last year for exporting 20,000 packets of zolpidem to the Caribbean. While hearing the case on 24-25 May, GPhC's Fitness to Practise Committee stated that "removal of the Registrant's name from the register is the appropriate and proportionate response to his convictions." "The public interest includes protecting the public, maintaining public confidence in the profession, and maintaining proper standards of behaviour. The Committee is entitled to give greater weight to the public interest than the Registrant's own interest in remaining on the register." "The Committee recognises the sanction has a punitive effect in that the Registrant's ability to practise and earn an income as a pharmacist and 28 his professional reputation will be curtailed; it will be five years before he can seek restoration to the register. However, that is the price he must pay for failing to comply with the fundamental tenets of his profession."

As part of its inclusion and diversity strategy, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has launched a campaign to challenge barriers to working in pharmacy for those with disabilities. A profession-wide survey on the subject conducted by the RPS, identified disability as the biggest barrier to working in pharmacy, highlighting the area of work to support pharmacists. The campaign will focus on reducing barriers to enter the profession, developing more accessible working environments and encouraging employers to collect data on disability in the workplace. The campaign, based on inputs from the RPS Ability Group volunteers with visible and non-visible disabilities, will run until the end of March. Following recommendation of the RPS Ability Group, RPS has written to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) the Higher Education Occupational Practitioners (HEOPS) to update the guidance on standards of medical fitness for pharmacy students.

The Council of the Pharmaceutical Society NI (PSNI) to remove the two-year requirement as a registered pharmacist to have an Independent Prescriber (IP) annotation on the pharmacy register in Northern Ireland. It has further endorsed that the two-year requirement for entry onto stand-alone pharmacist independent prescribing courses be removed and replaced with an assessment before admission, by course providers, based upon guidance provided by the regulator. In conjunction with the Department of Health, the PSNI will now work towards a further public consultation on the necessary legislative changes. Dr Jim Livingstone, president of the PSNI, said: "The Department of Health has set a clear direction which will see pharmacist independent prescribers becoming increasingly important in the delivery of pharmacy services in Northern Ireland. Our role is to protect the public, but we are clear that our regulatory objective should not be an unnecessary barrier to the development of the profession and enhanced services being provided to the public."

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has promoted Louise Edwards to the position of Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy Registrar. Louise is currently the Director of Regulation and Digital Transformation at the Electoral Commission, responsible for the organisation's regulatory work and digital, data, technology and facilities infrastructure. This includes funding and spending at elections and referendums, registering political parties, enforcement work, and data and information management. Louise will take over Mark Voce, the GPhC's current Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy Registrar, who is retiring early in July 2024. Louise said: "Pharmacy services are at the heart of health care for many people. Having effective regulation and standards in place can transform and give confidence in the quality of care that people receive.