The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (PSNI) last week (April 18) confirmed plans to hike annual retention fees by 20% – despite becoming the first regulator not to meet seven of the PSA’s 18 standards in a year just weeks earlier.
The PSNI said that “after much consideration” of its consultation to raise fees, it has agreed to “the proposed rise in annual retention fees from £398 to £477”.
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It also decided to offer registrants the option to pay the fee in four instalments by direct debit to “reduce the burden of the fee increase”.
It comes as a General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) consultation on two years of proposed hikes to annual registration fees for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy owners is due to close tomorrow.
PSNI “recognises concern”
The PSNI added that its 2025/26 annual retention process will be delayed - “with a preliminary date of August 1 2025 envisaged” - as it seeks the government approval and legislative changes needed to make the reforms.
“Any pharmacist who is on our register on or before May 31 2025 will be required to complete the 2025/26 retention process once the new date is confirmed and will pay the new retention fee,” it said.
It confirmed that other changes to the PSNI retention fee – including the “possibility that not all pharmacists would be required to pay the same amount” – are still on the table but that they “would not be completed in time” for the 2025/26 process.
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“We appreciate the increase in retention fee will not be welcomed by most pharmacists” but “unfortunately the increase is required”, the regulator said.
“Our council recognises the concern of registrants but needs to set fees at a level that secures our financial sustainability whilst ensuring optimal organisational performance,” it added.
“As a result of further feedback from the consultation, we have made a commitment to enhancing transparency on how monies are spent,” it said.
“Little progress”
Meanwhile, the regulators’ regulator last month (March 28) found that the PSNI did not meet seven of its standards in 2024 – including its responsibility to provide “accurate and fully accessible information” and to focus on “delivering core functions”.
The PSA said that its report marks “the first time a regulator has not met this many standards in a single year”.
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It also represents a fall from grace for the pharmacy regulator, having met all 18 standards just two years prior.
In a letter to the NI parliamentary committee for health, PSA chair Caroline Corby said that the body “identified weaknesses in multiple regulatory functions during 2023/24” and had “considerable” concerns.
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She added that “for the large majority of the review period, the PSNI’s public council papers contained few substantive items in general and no items on its operational performance”.
“We saw examples of inactivity across a number of different areas,” she said, adding that the PSNI made “little progress on key projects” including its professional standards review, guidance for registrants, education reform or improvements to its website.
Corby also wrote to NI health minister Mike Nesbitt and to “counterparts in the UK government and Parliament” alerting them to the issues.
Failures “not entirely surprising”
Reacting to the report, PSNI chief executive Canice Ward said that it was “not entirely surprising that some of the PSA standards were not met”.
“Unfortunately, during much of 2024, the society was considerably impacted by turnover of senior staff, which created a uniquely challenging situation,” president Dr Geraldine O’Hare added.
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“I am satisfied that things did start to turn around in the latter part of the year and into 2025 and this is acknowledged in the PSA report,” Ward said.
And he added that he is “determined” that the PSNI continues to “make significant progress during the remainder of this current reporting period”.
PSNI peril?
In February, the PSNI appointed new chief executive Ward after nine months with only a “caretaker” leader.
At the time, it said that he was joining the society on a “two-year secondment” from the Northern Irish Department of Health (DH).
It came after the PSNI revealed in September that it had failed to appoint a permanent chief executive after a “recent competition”.
Read more: Backtracked fee promises will hammer NI pharmacists, warns PDA
In October, the regulator’s annual report revealed that the financial year ending May 31 had been “a challenging period for the PSNI” resulting in a pre-tax loss of £195,250 – up from £194,725 the previous year.
And in February, the PSNI proposed removing the “blanket” recognition currently on offer to pharmacists from “a number of countries” wishing to register with it, alongside plans to update its online pharmacy standards.
