2021-07-21 10:56:00
The GPhC has published its annual fitness to practise report for 2020/21. Amongst other things, the report refers to:
- 46 enforcement notices were served on pharmacies (45 were improvement notices and 5 imposed conditions).
- In the case of 35 pharmacies, enforcement action followed “intelligence-led” inspections revealing inappropriate, unusually high volumes of sales of codeine linctus.
- 2,998 concerns raised about pharmacy professionals (of which 1,756 came from members of the public).
- COVID-19 related concerns included
- concerns about professionals failing to follow self-isolation advice from PHE when they were suspected to have COVID-19 symptoms;
- concerns either from members of the public or pharmacy staff over the use and deployment of PPE, including face masks and gloves;
- concerns about pharmacies charging unjustifiably high prices for essential products (the report does not mention that, in the event, no evidence was found to substantiate these concerns).
- Because of the pandemic, the GPhC switched resources away from inspections (there were 276 routine inspections) “to focus on supporting registered pharmacies with their arrangements and plans to help manage pressures and challenges during the pandemic”.
- Emergency powers were used to grant 3459 pharmacists and 2984 pharmacy technicians temporary registration.
- In virtual fitness to practise hearings, registrants attended in 85% of cases, compared to 65% pre-lockdown.
- 2,380 fitness to practise cases were closed with no further action in 1,062 cases.
- Of 333 cases that were investigated, no further action was taken in 214 of them.
- Out of 35 fitness to practise hearings, there were:
- 10 removals from the register;
- 9 suspensions;
- 8 warnings;
- 4 conditions on registration;
- 3 cases in which no further action was taken; and
- 1 case in which advice was given.
- Moving to online hearings was not considered to have affected case outcomes.