The PDA believes that the petition will be give grassroots pharmacists the opportunity to demonstrate their strength of feeling against these proposals to the Department of Health and the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
The petition will form part of a wider piece of work designed to persuade the GPhC to change the course of its current thinking.
Following a series of meetings around the UK to discuss the issue, the PDA has heard first-hand the concerns of many outraged pharmacists about the impact that the GPhC’s proposals would have on patient safety and upon their practice. Despite the PDA and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society expressing their serious concerns directly to the GPhC, and asking for it to fully consult on the matter, the GPhC has refused and appears intent on carrying on regardless of the safety concerns.
We are struck by the genuine indignation and frustration felt by pharmacists and also about the way that the GPhC has handled this issue,” said PDA Chairman Mark Koziol. “It is clear that pharmacists believe that being the guardian of the safe supply of all medicines – potent P medicines in particular – is an iconic and important cornerstone of pharmacy practice. The current simple system where P medicines are stored behind the chemist counter provides pharmacists with a risk management tool to improve patient safety by assisting with the prevention of a wide range of problems associated with inappropriate use of these more potent medicines. Pharmacists simply cannot understand how such a massive change in practice can be proposed by the GPhC without giving coalface practitioners the opportunity to register their views and despite strong protestations from major representative bodies in pharmacy.
Chief Executive Duncan Rudkin has recently been quoted in the press stating that the GPhC’s expertise does not lie with pharmacy practice, but with regulation and yet it is proceeding with its proposals despite concerns about the impact upon practice and patient safety.
Potential for drug interactions, abuse and addiction, inappropriate supply, and less opportunity for pharmacist intervention were just some of the concerns expressed by pharmacists at PDA meetings held around the country during April and May. They expressed concerns that self-selection could undermine the profession and lead to pharmacists becoming marginalised, and all at a time when the GPhC has claimed that the best way to protect the patient interest is to underpin the professionalism of pharmacists.
All PDA members will shortly be receiving an email explaining how to sign the petition. Pharmacists who are not PDA members can sign the petition at: www.the-pda.org/pmedspetition.