Courtesy of Ken Jarrold
Pharmacy technicians are to be consulted on their views on the supervision of the preparation, sale and supply of medicines in the autumn of 2018, the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) has said.
Speaking at APTUK’s 2018 annual conference, held in Glasgow on 17 and 18 June, Oliver Jones, APTUK business development officer, said a discussion at the conference on the sensitive issue of supervision was the “start of the process” in discovering pharmacy technicians’ views.
Describing the issue as a “massive hot potato”, Jones told the conference that APTUK’s current position statement on supervision, issued in July 2017, was “ambiguous” and that it had not been significantly updated since it was first published in 2011.
APTUK established a ‘task and finish group’ in February 2018 to look at the issue, and it will begin to seek members’ views formally later this year.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society announced in October 2017 that it was to consult with its members on the issue of pharmacy supervision during 2018 following a meeting of the Rebalancing Medicines Legislation and Pharmacy Regulation Programme Board that had discussed the issue.
The meeting was the first to take place since a document on the future of supervision prepared by a working party of the Board in 2016 was leaked to the press.
And following a further meeting of the Rebalancing Board held in February 2018, Ken Jarrold, the Board’s chair, said: “It is encouraging to hear that professional organisations are seeking views from their memberships [on supervision] to inform future discussion.”
APTUK is a member of the Rebalancing Board.
At APTUK’s 2018 conference, delegates were asked whether they were in favour of updating legislation to enable some level of pharmacy technician supervision of pharmacies.
Using a card system, more than 60 delegates voted in favour, and none voted against.
