The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) today (November 26) revealed that it has appointed Kathie Cashell as its new chief executive and registrar.
Cashell joins the regulator from her role as the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s (IOPC) deputy director general and will begin her new position on March 2, it said.
She replaces the GPhC’s interim chief executive and registrar Chris Askew, who was appointed in September and will “continue” in the role until March, it added.
Read more: GPhC appoints interim chief executive and registrar
According to the GPhC, Cashell “began her career as a nurse” and previously worked for the Healthcare Commission where she led work redesigning the “processes for handling NHS complaints”.
She introduced “more efficient ways of working” as well as the “development of consistent reporting of performance and learning across the system”, it said.
During her time at the IOPC, she “led work” to implement a “more accessible complaints system, promoting reasonable and proportionate responses when things go wrong”, it added.
“An honour”
Cashell said that it is “an honour” to be appointed to the role, adding that she looks forward to “[tackling] the challenges facing the sector”.
She has focused on “improving outcomes for service users” throughout her career and looks forward to “leading the GPhC to achieve its vision of safe and effective care...by empowering pharmacists and protecting the public through its vital work”, she added.
GPhC chair Gisela Abbam said that she is “delighted” to welcome Cashell to the role, noting that she joins the regulator at a “pivotal time”.
Read more: GPhC hiring new chief executive for ‘initial’ four-year term
Her leadership will be “instrumental in achieving [the GPhC’s] strategic aims of empowering pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to provide trusted, safe and effective pharmacy care”, she said.
Cashell’s “more than 20 years of senior leadership experience in regulation, governance and public protection…will be invaluable at a time when there are significant opportunities but also significant challenges facing the pharmacy sector”, she added.
And Abbam noted that the council “[looks] forward to working closely” with Cashell to “shape a future where pharmacy services continue to inspire confidence, protect the public and advance healthcare for all”.
Read more: IN FULL: GPhC chief executive steps down after 15 years
It comes after the GPhC announced in July that its former chief executive and registrar Duncan Rudkin had “decided to step down from his role” at the end of December after leading the regulator for 15 years.
It said in September that it was looking for an “outstanding individual” to fill the role for an “initial” four-year term and later that month announced that it had hired chief executive of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Askew to fill the role on an interim basis.
