The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is still taking too long to decide fitness-to-practise cases, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has found.

The GPhC had maintained its performance as an effective regulator but the watchdog said it was "disappointed" that three cases due for closure in September 2012 were still open at the start of 2014, in its annual performance review of the pharmacy regulator.

The GPhC met nine of the PSA's 10 standards of good regulation but the time it took to progress fitness-to-practise cases did not meet the watchdog's criteria to deal with cases "as quickly as possible", the PSA said in its report published last week (June 26).

There had been some improvement in the time taken by the GPhC to progress most cases but this was still taking too long, the PSA said. The number of cases older than 52 and 104 weeks had also increased since last year, it said.

In its previous two performance reviews, the watchdog reported concerns about the time taken by the GPhC to conclude cases transferred to it by former regulator the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. The GPhC's target date for concluding these cases was September 2012, but three were still open at the start of 2014, the PSA said.

The cases were closed by May and the GPhC had acknowledged that these cases should have been resolved earlier, the watchdog said.

The PSA recognised that the GPhC was taking steps to improve the timeliness of its fitness-to-practise processes and said it expected to see a reduction in the number of cases open for longer than 52 weeks when it conducted its review next year.

GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said he was "delighted" with the PSA's overall recognition that the organisation was an effective regulator, but agreed "much more work" remained to be done to improve its fitness-to-practise procedures.

"We'll continue to evaluate our internal processes and infrastructure and look for ways to improve and meet our aims more efficiently," Mr Rudkin said.

Papers from the GPhC's council meeting earlier this month revealed that by the end of April the GPhC had concluded 89 per cent of all fitness-to-practise cases within 12 months. This represented a 5 per cent increase from last quarter and fell just under its target of 95 per cent of all cases.

Last year, the PSA found that the GPhC dealt with fitness-to-practise cases promptly but needed to make improvements in its record keeping.

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