The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has pledged to keep the time and costs involved in revalidation to a minimum.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin acknowledged concerns over the burden of continuing fitness-to-practise checks in an exclusive interview with C+D on Tuesday (November 19).

The GPhC would do its best to ensure the proposals, announced last week (November 14), did not encumber pharmacists, Mr Rudkin stressed. The checks will involve three elements of continual assessment including a peer review, CPD review and performance measures.

Chief Duncan Rudkin said the GPhC needed "to be able to look pharmacists and technicians in the eye and assure them the costs are proportionate and worthwhile"	More on the GPhC and revalidation GPhC continual assessment plans spark workload fears GPhC reveals plans for continual assessment GPhC pledges to make technician training 'fit for the future'
	Although it was "premature" to give figures on the length of time and costs involved, Mr Rudkin assured registrants that they would be proportionate. "We're very mindful not only of the expense and regulatory burden but, more fundamentally, every hour a pharmacy professional spends on continuing fitness-to-practise is an hour they could be spending with patients," he told C+D.

"We need to think of it from that point of view to make sure we can justify the benefit and time involved," Mr Rudkin stressed.

Keeping costs down was an equally important priority, he added. "We're very conscious of the fact that this is going to require some investment but we need to be able to look pharmacists and technicians in the eye and assure them the costs are proportionate and worthwhile," he pledged.

The GPhC expects to develop a full model for the continuing fitness-to-practise checks by September next year, followed by three years of testing, consultation and evaluation before implementation in 2018.