The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has consulted on standards to replace the existing ‘Standards of Conduct, Ethics and Performance’ which apply to individual GPhC registrants. It has chosen the name ‘Standards for Pharmacy Professionals’ for the replacement. It has developed nine standards, focused on the areas it says are necessary to deliver safe and effective care.
Far from achieving this stated objective, the PDA has argued in its consultation response that the GPhC has proposed standards which seem highly corporatized and supportive of a multiple pharmacy operator agenda. The PDA is concerned that the standards as proposed by the GPhC may result in unintended consequences as they are capable of being used by employers to support disciplinary processes against pharmacists. The organisation ‘Pharmacy Voice’ in its response to the consultation has gone as far as to register its approval to the GPhC by saying “we are pleased to see that in developing the new standards, the GPhC has considered our response to the preceding discussion paper”
The GPhC consultation also continues to apply the term ‘pharmacy professionals’ when describing pharmacy technicians and this is something that the PDA takes issue with. The PDA believes that the proposed approach taken to these standards, if left as they are will lead to a number of risks to the public, including the isolation of whistle-blowers. The PDA makes a series of recommendations relating to the standards, including that they should be significantly revised and consulted upon again at a later stage.
THE CONSULTATION DOCUMENT CAN BE READ HERE
