The regulator – which announced on March 17 that it was stopping all routine inspections due to COVID-19 – resumed visits to pharmacies that had to be re-inspected after six months following a “standards not all met” inspection outcome, in August.

However, due to the introduction of new lockdown restrictions, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has suspended inspections to pharmacies needing re-inspection from this month, it wrote in a Q&A page on its website updated earlier this week (November 4).

“From the beginning of November, we have suspended routine pharmacy inspections in areas that are in the highest levels of COVID-19 restrictions.

“This includes the whole of England during the new national restrictions from November 5, any areas in tier 3 in England after the end of the national restrictions, any areas in level 3 or above in Scotland and the whole of Wales during the ‘firebreak’ lockdown,” the GPhC said.

This type of inspections will go ahead as planned “in areas that are not in the highest levels of COVID-19 restrictions”, it added.  

C+D asked the GPhC yesterday (November 5) whether routine inspections will resume after the highest levels of COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. A spokesperson said the regulator is monitoring “the situation closely as it develops”.

The national lockdown in England that came into effect yesterday will end on December 2, while the “firebreak” lockdown in Wales – imposed on October 23 – is due to come to an end on Monday, November 9.

The GPhC will continue its “support calls to pharmacies to discuss their contingency planning” during the lockdown period and will undertake “intelligence-led” inspections if it receives any information that indicates there is a “risk to patient safety”, the regulator said on the  Q&A page.