GPhC continual assessment plans spark workload fears
Professional Revalidation in 2018 must be “proportionate and reasonable”, say national and local leaders, including Devon LPC project pharmacist Mark Stone (pictured) who voiced fears about how much work pharmacists would have to do to prove they are fit to practise
Revalidation will boost confidence in the profession but must avoid putting a burden on the workforce, pharmacy leaders have warned.
Pharmacy organisations including Numark and Pharmacy Voice broadly welcomed the proposals for introducing ‘continuing fitness-to-practise checks' from 2018, agreed by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) last week (November 14).
But they stressed that the new model, which will include a peer review, a CPD review and the use of performance indicators, should not significantly increase pharmacists' workloads.
The GPhC said it would be working closely with the pharmacy profession to develop a "flexible and straightforward" framework.
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Devon LPC project pharmacist Mark Stone is concerned about how much work pharmacists would have to do to prove they are fit to practise |
 More on the GPhC and revalidation
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Numark's director of pharmacy services Mimi Lau stressed that continuing fitness-to-practise checks were necessary to ensure pharmacy was in line with other healthcare professionals. "It is important that we remember the aims of any revalidation – to give patients and the public, as well as other health professionals, extra confidence that registrants are up to date in their knowledge and fit to practise," she said. |
GPhC reveals plans for continual assessment|
But the new measures must be "proportionate and reasonable" and red tape must be kept to a minimum, Ms Lau warned. She also called for the GPhC to adopt an "inclusive approach" in engaging with the profession on the changes. Mark Stone, project pharmacist at Devon LPC, echoed the warnings. "The concern would centre around how much work a pharmacist would have to complete to prove they are fit to practise," he said. He stressed that pharmacists had little time for CPD during working hours. However, Mr Stone added that the profession needed to ensure best practice "wherever possible" as it moved to a more clinical role. Pharmacy Voice chief executive Rob Darracott reiterated the importance of revalidation and said the GPhC appeared to be taking the right approach. "The devil will clearly be in the detail, but ‘flexible' and ‘straightforward' would seem to be good things to be aiming for," he told C+D. The GPhC first set out its plans for revalidation last January. The work reflected the Department of Health's agenda to ensure healthcare professionals remained competent after registration, the GPhC said at the time. Revalidation for doctors was introduced in December. But the GPhC said it would avoid using the term revalidation, instead using ‘continuing fitness to practise' to highlight that it would be an ongoing process. It has not indicated how often the checks would take place. The regulator expects to develop a full model for the checks by September next year, followed by three years of testing, consultation and evaluation before implementation in 2018 (see box, right). |
The three assessment elements1. Peer review These reviews will be conducted by GPhC-accredited organisations and will be the "core activity" in the continuing fitness-to-practise checks. Professionals from the organisations will review the work of registered pharmacists and technicians based on their scope of practice. 2. CPD review The GPhC will look to move away from the ‘call and review' CPD process, which focuses on compliance. The regulator said it would like to introduce a system that focuses more on quality, to ensure CPD makes an impact on practice. This may mean only a sample of pharmacy professionals have their records called. 3. External performance measures The regulator doesn't have much detail yet on what these measures will be but says they will "vary according to the scope of a registrant's practice". It pledged to develop the measures in consultation with the profession. Revalidation: the timelineJanuary 2014 Start developing framework for continuing fitness-to-practise checks March 2014 Begin review of CPD assessment September 2014 GPhC gives interim sign-off of continuing fitness-to-practise model and starts initial testing March 2015 Piloting of the model begins September 2016 GPhC evaluates results of the pilot and compiles report April 2017 GPhC launches full consultation on model Autumn 2017 GPhC considers consultation outcome and agrees final framework 2018 Continuing fitness-to-practise checks begin |
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