The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) plans to pilot an “independent complaint handling service” to help handle its workload for registrant concerns, papers published for yesterday’s (July 17) council meeting have revealed.
To have a “measurable impact” on the “unsustainable and wholly disproportionate” volume of concerns received, the regulator will explore an “alternative dispute resolution provider”, the GPhC said.
“We will develop a feasibility option and pilot for an independent complaint handling service as a means of diverting low level concerns about our registrants to a more appropriate service,” it added.
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“The pharmacy sector is in the minority of healthcare providers in that it has no alternative resolution service for general complaints and the council has, to date, sought to fill that void,” the GPhC explained.
It noted, however, that the project will “require additional investment” and will not produce “an immediate realisable financial benefit”.
“But it should be considered a longer-term investment towards an improvement in the quality of service provided to registrants and the public and enable a reallocation of resource to concerns that raise serious regulatory concerns,” it added.
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According to the papers, the 2024/25 period “saw a further year-on-year increase of 13% for concerns received” - an “overall increase of over 100%” since 2021/22.
“At least 50% of the concerns we receive should not come to the attention of the regulator and divert our limited resources away from assessing urgent risk,” the regulator stressed.
It added that it “did not meet” its caseload target at the end of the reporting year, reducing its open investigations from 561 to 497 but missing its aim of 450.
“Dip in performance”
The GPhC explained that there had been a “dip in performance” due to recent “planned and unplanned” absences, which at times meant “40% of the team” was away at any one time.
But it said that it had begun to see a “slow but steady reduction in the backlog over the last couple of weeks”, adding that it was “prioritising screening to identify any high-risk cases”.
“To ensure objectives remain achievable while stretching”, the GPhC has agreed to revert to an 80% resolution rate within eight weeks for the first half of the year, with an “ambition” to achieve 80% within six weeks for the last two quarters of the year, it added.
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The GPhC also revealed that it recorded a deficit of £1.6 million in the 2024/25 financial year, with an anticipated “operating deficit of £2.2m” in 2025/26.
This reflects “the ongoing financial challenges of maintaining a balanced budget amid a persistent trend of expenditure outpacing income”, it said.
Meanwhile, analysis of GPhC service delivery in the last quarter of 2024/25 revealed that it was “rated red” in terms of its performance on open fitness-to-practise (FtP) cases at the investigation stage.
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It said it was “heavily challenged by delays” in progressing cases from the investigation committee (IC) to its FtP committee with it taking a “disproportionate time...to prepare and serve” a finalised case, stressing that “further work” is needed to “streamline” this.
And its “average time to serve an [inspection] enforcement notice” and response time to “corporate complaints” were also found to be “rated red”, papers said.
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It comes after the GPhC rated its FtP performance as “amber” in September after it tested itself against its “new objectives” for 2024/25.
Meanwhile, the GPhC yesterday announced that it will increase registration fees by 6% in 2025 but “reflect further” before deciding on an increase for next year.
