The regulator said it had set outs its "programme of work" on pressure after reading recent coverage in the Guardian and the pharmacy media of a Pharmacists’ Defence Association survey.

The survey revealed that 55% of just under 2,000 employee and locum pharmacists at the multiples feel commercial incentives or targets compromise patient safety or professional judgement "around half" of the time or more.

It made international headlines in April after the Guardian used it as part of its allegations that some Boots managers had instructed staff to carry out unnecessary medicines use reviews (MURs).

Address the issues raised

In an article in the GPhC e-bulletin Regulate, published today (June 15), the regulator described how it will host an event in October to “bring people together from inside and outside pharmacy, to consider what role different organisations and individuals can play to address the issues raised”.

The GPhC will also meet with a range of stakeholders, including pharmacy owners, to hear from them how they “support their staff to do the right thing in the first place”.

Not focused on one company

However, the regulator stressed that it will not focus on any one company.

“The PDA survey results themselves – and the reactions to them – have indicated that workplace pressures are not an issue for just one company, but a wider issue for the sector to which everyone within pharmacy needs to consider and respond,” it said.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said: "We want to create an opportunity for all of us – regulators, the NHS, companies, professionals and representative bodies, to consider these complex and challenging issues in depth."

Read Boots' response to the GPhC's plans here.
 

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