The PDA is generally supportive of the proposals and believe they will lead to improved standards. The following changes are being proposed:
- Changes to the types of inspections – moving to a new model that includes three types of inspection: routine inspections, intelligence-led inspections and themed inspections.
- Moving to unannounced inspections – future inspections will be unannounced, as a general rule.
- Changing inspection outcomes – there would be two possible outcomes for an inspection overall (‘standards met’ or ‘standards not all met’), and four possible findings at the principle level (‘standards not all met’, ‘standards met’, ‘good practice’ and ‘excellent practice’).
- Requiring all standards to be met to receive an overall ‘standards met’ outcome – if any standard is found not to be met, this would result in a ‘standards not all met’ outcome overall.
- Publishing inspection reports – publishing inspection reports and improvement action plans when relevant, on a new website.
- Sharing examples of notable practice – that are identify through inspections in a ‘knowledge hub’ on the new website. This will help encourage continuous learning and improvement in pharmacy.
However, the PDA is urging the GPhC to go further to ensure they meet the required regulatory standards and ensure the public are not put at risk. Findings from a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request show that whilst carrying out routine inspections, the GPhC has identified major patient safety concerns in 667 pharmacies across Great Britain. Read the full article here.
We are also concerned that the GPhC is not always effectively identifying certain risks to patient safety during its inspections, such as inadequate staffing levels and the effect of corporate targets on professional judgement. We believe increased transparency is needed on how the GPhC makes its decisions on inspection ratings when it assesses such things.
The consultation documents and details of how to respond can be found here.
We will issue our official response to the GPhC consultation next month. The PDA responds to various consultations on behalf of members. Previous PDA consultation responses can be found here.
The PDA encourages members to respond to the consultation and share their views on the proposals.