It was created in September 2010 when the functions of the body then responsible for regulation and professional representation, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, were split.
[10][11] He was part of Prime Minister David Cameron's business trade delegation to India in 2013, the year before his appointment to the healthcare regulator in 2014.
[12] Clarke was also the business partner of Digby Emson, a former Boots superintendent, who was the chairman of the GPhC's audit and risk committee (circa 2017-2020)[13][14] and also a council member (2014-2020).
[21][22][23] The GPhC's regulatory duties include setting standards for and accrediting the education and training of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
This is in the context of there being 995 occasions in the two financial years preceding the FOI request where the GPhC had identified serious issues that it wanted rectifying, where its standards hadn't been met.
It appears that some of the inspection outcome is predetermined as a desktop exercise at a head office level before visiting the pharmacy, irrespective of how it is applied in practice.
The purpose of this is to achieve improved consistency, with the strategic relationship manager holding three formalised structured meetings with the Superintendent Pharmacist and his/her team each year to review corporate documents and processes.
"[32]The GPhC listed its powers to regulate corporate bodies, effected through its committees, thus:[33][34] In September 2022, the Professional Standards Authority launched a report in Parliament on improving patient safety.
They give it significant scope to influence a number of areas including governance, risk management and safe staffing.” The PSA then noted that regulation by the GPhC may not be fit for purpose: “We are seeing large corporate chains accused of ‘hard sell’ tactics, and other questionable practices, that seem to prioritise profit over the best interests of both patients and registrants.
However, the regulation of ‘high street’ providers of healthcare is complex and piecemeal, and may not be fit for purpose.”[35] In 2018, a Freedom of Information request revealed that 5,878 temporary pharmacy closures occurred in England in a 12-month period in 2016-17.
[36] In November 2022, a Freedom of Information request revealed that 20,924 temporary closures occurred in England in a 12-month period between Oct 2021 and Sep 2022.
We also note significant levels of distrust from the profession that the regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Council … would be able to set standards and rules appropriately."
Concerns were raised about two brothers, referred to by the court as R1 and R2, accused of falsifying prescriptions to obtain high value drugs and export them to EU member states before Brexit.
The GPhC's social media guidance (“Demonstrating Professionalism Online”) – which asks pharmacists not to get involved in “negative, unconstructive discussions”, has not as yet been subject to legal challenge on the grounds of human rights.
However, action taken against a pharmacist on the basis that he/she was involved in a negative and/or unconstructive discussion has the potential to engage human rights issues in relation to freedom of expression.
This means that trainee pharmacy technicians completing the distance learning courses can find answers to these questions and could potentially plagiarise them word-for-word to help them pass their assessments, without having conducted their own research or developing their own understanding.
As at 22 March 2018, the threads identified had been viewed a combined total 61,483 times... GPhC-commissioned research, published in 2014, included comments relating to the potential for cheating, collusion and plagiarism on pharmacy technicians’ initial education and training courses...
Prior to 30 March 2018, the process of ongoing learning – evidence of which had had to be provided to the GPhC since its inception in 2010 – was referred to as "Continuing Professional Development" (CPD).
[53] For three years from 2014 to 2017, the GPhC developed proposals to change the requirements upon pharmacists and pharmacy technicians as a Continuing Fitness to Practise “CFtP” programme.
[54][55] The requirements under the framework include submitting four CPD records each year (two of which must be planned); a reflective account, in which the individual considers his/her own practice; and a peer discussion.
[56] The distinction between revalidation and CFtP is therefore an important one, to be recognised by healthcare regulators who wish to demonstrate they have genuinely learned from past events, including the Shipman Inquiry.
The GPhC’s “revalidation” programme does not meet the definitions put forward by the Professional Standards Authority, the Department of Health and Social Care, and others.
The GPhC asserted that the change from CFtP to "revalidation" was made due to concerns over the negative connotations associated with the term “fitness to practise”.
At a meeting in November 2013, the GPhC’s governing council explored a means of implementing a framework for assuring continuing fitness to practise.
The latter better describes the thinking outlined in this proposal, so that term will be used from now on.”[73] In 2014, a page was created on the GPhC’s website explaining why it was looking to implement a CFtP framework and not revalidation.
The advisory group requested that the GPhC’s governing council be asked, at its meeting the following day, to change the name of the framework from “revalidation” to an alternative which accurately reflects its nature.
The advisory group was subsequently informed by email on 1 November 2017 that the council had decided to retain the name “because of its relative ease of understanding and they felt we needed to do more to explain the type of assurance that it provided to the public”.
The GPhC has not said whether it has checked for or observed any trends in terms of concerns raised to it in respect of the provisionally-registered cohort, and it does not have oversight of or monitor dispensing errors or other pharmacy incidents.
The exam was held on 29 June 2022, and resulted in the GPhC issuing a formal statement on the same date apologising for the delayed start at 5 out of 113 test centres.
[90][91] The GPhC's decision in July 2022 to provisionally register as pharmacists individuals who had not passed the June 2022 registration assessment, was based in part on the principles “to support the NHS and community pharmacy by strengthening the workforce at this critical time” and "to minimise blockages or gaps in the pipeline for qualified new registrants to join the profession in 2022 and in the coming years".