Many contractors were left "confused" and "concerned" in the days leading up to last week's expected clinical governance (CG) regulation changes, pharmacy bodies have reported.

In the run up to the original clinical governance regulation deadline of April 1, pharmacists were as "confused as ever" and worried about falling foul of PCT inspectors if they did not comply with the changes, Numark director of pharmacy services Mimi Lau said.

The NPA reported that it had received "a large volume of calls" from pharmacists worried about the changes and Avicenna chief executive Salim Jetha agreed: "I don't think pharmacists were aware of the changes, let alone prepared for them".

"There was insufficient clarity on what was required, despite a ‘transition' period of six months" Mimi Lau, Numark

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Just a day before the changes were due to come into force, the government published the clinical governance approved particulars, outlining the detail of the requirements pharmacies must comply with. It also announced that contractors would have until July 1 to ensure compliance with them. But pharmacy bodies criticised the delay in publishing the detailed guidance on the changes, pointing out that the government had first announced the changes six months ago.

"There was insufficient clarity on what was required to meet the new clinical governance requirements despite a ‘transition' period of six months," Ms Lau said. NPA Head of information services Leyla Hannbeck agreed that it would have been unreasonable to expect implementation of the new requirements from April 1.

A poll of C+D readers, taken in the days prior to the April deadline, found that two thirds of pharmacists were unprepared for the changes. Of those surveyed, only 29 per cent said they were ready for the new requirements, while 57 per cent said they were unlikely to be ready and 14 per cent said they were not ready but would be by April 1.

PSNC head of NHS services Alastair Buxton said the details had not been available sooner because of the Department of Health (DH) processes that the changes had needed to go through. "We can agree the detail, but then these things have to work their way through the DH, which inevitably takes time," he said.

Speaking to C+D in the days prior to the publication of the new requirements, owner of Beaminster Pharmacy in Dorset Mike Hewitson said he was finding implementation of the changes problematic. "There's only so much time pharmacists can dedicate to getting ready," he said.

As part of the changes, the requirements for information governance, premises and incident reporting have changed and those for pharmacy practice leaflets and patient satisfaction surveys have also been updated. PSNC and NHS Employers have published detailed guidance on the changes available here.