The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) last week (December 13) announced that some proposed changes to its education and training “quality assurance process have now been approved by [its] governing body”.
In July, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) raised several “long-standing concerns” in its response to the plan’s consultation, saying that it was unclear why the GPhC proposed “greater use of data” when it was already aware of “the disparity in results” between universities.
Read more: ‘Incredible waste of talent’: PDA slams GPhC for ‘failing’ black students
At the time, it said that the pharmacy regulator was “proving incapable of resolving this significant disparity” and claimed that the GPhC’s inability to address the persistent attainment gap between black students and other groups had “failed” black students.
Now, the GPhC has rubberstamped some of the plans, which “will be implemented in the 2025/26 academic year”, it said.
“Decided not to proceed”
“The council approved two areas of enhancement to our accreditation processes – first, to incorporate additional internal and external data to support re-approval events [and] secondly, to start an annual survey of students and trainees,” a spokesperson told C+D.
“Council also approved a change to the accreditation and recognition criteria to align reapproval cycles across all pharmacy education and training provision,” they added.
But the GPhC “decided not to proceed” with a proposed “annual monitoring event”, the spokesperson said.
Read more: GPhC mulls ‘video call’ inspections for relocated pharmacies
“The benefits of yearly monitoring…can be realised through flexible, regular engagement of a more discursive nature without the pressure and burden of a monitoring event,” they added.
Commenting on the changes, GPhC chief strategy officer Louise Edwards said that the changes will increase the regulators’ engagement with the providers and allow “more opportunities to discuss challenges and opportunities to raise the quality of their courses”
She added that further data on education and training will provide “highlight potential areas of concern that would trigger further inquiry with the provider.”
Inspection updates
The approved plans come as the GPhC last week (December 12) also greenlit plans to update its pharmacy inspections process.
It said that the changes include “a shorter, focused inspection methodology for some routine inspections” and the allowing “e-inspections at any time up to six months plus two weeks from the date of initial inspection” to result in “more timely follow ups”.
The changes “are due to be implemented during January 2025”, it added.
“Updating the inspections process means we can be more targeted, focusing on areas of higher risk, and the key standards for patient safety,” GPhC chief pharmacy officer Roz Gittins said.
Read more: PDA: GPhC consultation ‘watering down’ online pharmacy guidance
Meanwhile earlier this month, the regulator’s December council papers revealed proposals to allow inspectors to “conduct a visual inspection of the premises remotely…by video call” when a pharmacy changes location.
It also laid out plans to “take a risk-based approach to determine when the first inspection of a pharmacy takes place”.
“We are proposing that where no other risk indicators are present, the first inspection may take place at any time up to 12 months for a ‘bricks-and-mortar’ pharmacy,” a spokesperson told C+D.
