The number of fitness-to-practise complaints about pharmacy professionals has nearly doubled over the past two years, led by a surge in public concerns, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has revealed.

The regulator received 1,597 complaints over 2014-15, it revealed in its annual report, published last week (July 2). The figure is a 54 per cent increase on the previous year, when the GPhC received 1,038 complaints, and nearly the double the 840 it received in 2012-13.

The vast majority of complaints in 2014-15 were within the GPhC's remit, with just 18 per cent falling outside it compared with 28 per cent last year and 34 per cent the previous year.

Complaints from members of the public showed a particular increase over the past two years, rising by nearly 2.5 times to 1,087 in 2014-15, when they accounted for 68 per cent of all cases seen by the GPhC.

In contrast, the number of self-referrals for fitness-to-practise proceedings fell 29 per cent from 130 to 92 over the past year, the report said. Employers were also less likely to lodge a complaint about their staff, raising just 49 concerns in 2014-15 compared with 80 in 2013-14, the report showed.

The GPhC said the “significant increase” in the number of concerns raised was mirrored in the figures of other healthcare regulators. To cope with the numbers, it had employed more staff to work on fitness-to-practise concerns and made it easier to lodge a complaint online, it said.

The amount of money GPhC spent investigating and managing fitness-to-practise cases rose by a quarter to £2.84m in 2014-15.

In the report, the GPhC also revealed it had accrued a deficit of nearly £2 million in the last financial year, mainly because of its move in premises, an increase in staffing levels, and implementation of a new IT system. The figure was better than the £2.6m deficit it had forecast back in January 2014, it said.

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