General Pharmaceutical Council
Source: GPhC
GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said the regulator would continue efforts to improve the delivery of safe and effective care, and uphold confidence in pharmacy
The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has met all its performance standards for the second year running in its annual performance review (2016–2017) from the oversight regulator, the Professional Standards Authority (PSA).
Last year (2015–2016) was the first time that the GPhC had met all the targets. In previous years the PSA, which reviews the work of the regulators of health and care professionals, had raised concerns about the time taken to handle fitness-to-practise cases and whether decisions about proceeding to hearings were fair and transparent.
The latest review report says the GPhC is maintaining the progress it has made in handling fitness-to-practise cases, with no appeals against fitness-to-practise decisions by the PSA or other concerns about decision-making in fitness-to-practise cases.
The PSA highlighted several activities and actions undertaken by the GPhC as evidence of how it is meeting the standards, such as introducing a mechanism that allows students to raise concerns about pharmacy education and training directly with the GPhC, and creating a webpage, online concern forms and supporting materials.
The GPhC’s wide-ranging engagement on the new standards for pharmacy professionals, including an additional consultation on religion, personal values and beliefs, was described by the PSA as “an example of good practice in consulting and reaching decisions”. The consultation prompted an unprecedented number of responses and the changes the GPHC made in response “demonstrate a commitment to ensuring its standards reflect person-centred care and that registrants know what they must do to make sure they put the care of service users first”, the PSA said.
GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said: “We are pleased that the Professional Standards Authority has again recognised our good performance across all of their standards. We will continue our efforts to further improve our efficiency and effectiveness as a regulator, to help achieve our aim of supporting and improving the delivery of safe and effective care, and upholding confidence in pharmacy.”
