The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) this week (July 28) announced plans to remove “historical revalidation records” from its myGPhC system.
It said that from September 1, it will remove records submitted to the system by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians before 2021 as these are “no longer relevant”.
Records from before 2021 “will not be needed at any time by the GPhC” as it only reviews new revalidation submissions, it added.
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But it stressed that revalidation records submitted in the last four years will continue to be available on myGPhC.
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians who wish to keep copies of their historical records must copy and paste from the system or take screenshots before the end of August, the GPhC said.
The regulator “cannot provide any technical support with copying records” and it is not possible to download them directly, it added.
“Planned maintenance”
The regulator also revealed that it will implement a “planned data maintenance project” on myGPhC to remove the accumulated historical records.
This aims to “improve its performance, enhance user experience for all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and help the GPhC meet its legal obligations around data storage”, it said.
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It will affect all pharmacy professionals registered with the GPhC who submit revalidation records every year, it added.
Records will be “regularly removed on a rolling basis” following the “initial clean-up” so myGPhC accounts will always display the most recent four years of records, it said.
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It comes as the GPhC was this week forced to apologise after pharmacy trainees who sat the June registration assessment were unable to access their exam results due to technical issues with the myGPhC platform.
It later revealed the results of the common registration assessment for pharmacists – with an overall pass rate of 77% - saying that the “vast majority” of candidates had been able to access their individual results.
Meanwhile, the regulator also this week announced that its chief executive and registrar Duncan Rudkin will leave the organisation at the end of the year after 15 years at its helm.
