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The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is one of the healthcare regulators that has committed to jointly developing “high-level principles” around the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) use by health and social care professionals.
The commitment came in a joint statement of intent, published on 17 September 2026, co-signed by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) for Health and Social Care — which oversees health regulators, including the GPhC — the ten regulators that the PSA oversees and the Accredited Registers Collaborative.
“This statement represents the beginning of a formal collaboration across professional regulation in the interests of supporting safe, effective and responsible use of AI in health and social care that is worthy of public trust,” it said.
The joint statement of intent added that the signatory bodies welcome recommendations from the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare’s report, which was published on 10 September 2026. The report noted that healthcare professionals need clarity on their responsibilities when using AI.
Recommendation 32 of the report said that stakeholders — including the Department of Health and Social Care and devolved health departments, regulators and royal colleges — should take a coordinated approach to developing the use of AI in healthcare.
The joint statement of intent added: “We commit to a coordinated and collaborative response to the [National] Commission’s recommendations, working with other system partners to achieve this.
“As a first step, we will develop a set of high-level principles to guide how we regulate the use of AI by health and social care professionals across the UK.”
Commenting on the statement, Tase Oputu, president of the Royal College of Pharmacy (RCPharm), said: “We welcome the commitment from regulators to work together on the safe and responsible use of AI. For pharmacy and medicines, it is important that any shared principles recognise that AI should support, not replace, professional judgement, with clear accountability for decisions and meaningful human oversight.
“A coordinated approach across regulators will be important as AI becomes more widely used in healthcare, and should help ensure that patient safety remains at the centre of how these technologies are developed and used.”
The results of an RCPharm survey, carried out between 16 March 2026 and 30 March 2026, revealed that just under two-thirds (63.8%, n=90) of respondents reported having used AI at work. Almost three-quarters (74%, n=104) of respondents also said that the use of AI in pharmacy practice gives them some cause for concern.
In January 2025, the then Royal Pharmaceutical Society published a policy statement on the use of AI in pharmacy.
