General Pharmaceutical Council

Introduction

I am delighted to be able to bring you an e-bulletin today which contains a series of very important updates which illustrate the immense amount of work being undertaken to establish the GPhC. Today’s announcements will be encouraging to registrants and stakeholders as they show real progress on the critical path to our being able to take over regulatory responsibilities, for which we are now able to announce a target date.

We have been careful to resist the urge to announce a target date for the transfer of regulatory responsibility until we could be sure it allowed a realistic timeframe for the completion of both necessary external (parliamentary) and internal processes. We believe the target date we are announcing today will allow us to be in good shape to take over regulatory responsibilities.

Today we also announce the beginning of our consultation on the 2011 Fees rules. I would welcome your thoughts on these and hope you find time over the next 12 weeks to look over the rules and comment at http://www.pharmacyregulation.org/getinvolved/consultations/2011feesrules/index.aspx

May I take this opportunity to remind you that the GPhC consultation on revised draft standards closes on 28 May. I encourage you all to look over the revised standards and let us know your thoughts. I recently set out the thinking behind the development of the standards in the Pharmaceutical Journal, you can read my thoughts here.

As we work toward our target date we will need to communicate changes and news to as many registrants and stakeholders as possible and I would encourage you to ensure your colleagues and friends in the profession sign up for the e-bulletin to ensure they are aware of the key changes in the regulation of pharmacy that this year will bring.

Best wishes,
Duncan

Establishment update

We, along with The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) have today jointly announced our intention to complete the work for the transfer of the regulatory functions of the Society to the GPhC as the new pharmacy regulator by the end of September this year.

Both organisations are confident that this target date for the transfer is attainable as a result of constructive discussions both with each other and with the Department of Health and the devolved administrations. These discussions anticipate that the necessary processes, including the parliamentary process, will be concluded to allow a September timetable to be adhered to.

The GPhC Council and the Council of the RPSGB have also jointly announced that Duncan Rudkin, Chief Executive and Registrar of the GPhC, will assume the role of Registrar when Helen Gordon becomes Chief Executive of the RPSGB in July.

We feel this will help pave the way for the transfer of regulation to the GPhC and that the arrangement will offer Duncan the opportunity to develop further working relationships which will facilitate a smooth transition for the staff and others involved in the delivery of the regulatory functions.

2011 Fees rules consultation

Today we are announcing the beginning of a consultation on draft fees rules for 2011.

The draft rules describe the proposed fees that pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and owners of pharmacy premises will be required to pay for 2011 and include the fees which it is proposed will be charged to renew registration on the GPhC’s register. The consultation process will continue for twelve weeks.

All existing registrants on the RPSGB’s practising registers, and all registered premises, will transfer automatically to the GPhC and no payment will be required on transfer. The fees now being consulted on will apply for new entrants to the register post transfer and for those registrants who renew their registration for 2011.

The GPhC’s register will include three parts containing entries for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises. The fees structure being proposed has been designed to enable the new regulator to undertake its core regulatory functions as a truly independent authority.

For pharmacists the consultation proposes an application fee of £100.00 for those applying to join the register for the first time, and of £262.00 for initial registration and for all renewals of entry.

For pharmacy technicians the comparable charges are £100.00 and £142.00 while for pharmacy premises the processes attract a fee of £217.00 for renewal and for first time entry an application/ registration fee of £557.00. Importantly, the fees which are set out for consultation, position the GPhC at the lower end of fees charged by other UK health professional regulators.

We welcome all views and would encourage you to respond to the consultation at http://www.pharmacyregulation.org/getinvolved/consultations/2011feesrules/index.aspx. The consultation will run until 16 August 2010.

Council

The GPhC Council met again on May 19 at the City Inn in Westminster. A copy of the agenda and papers are available here. It was hoped the Council would be able to make the five sets of Rules – Fitness to practise, appeals, registration, 2010 fees and statutory committees and their advisors –upon consideration of the consultation report, however, it was decided to add an additional council meeting to the schedule for this purpose.

The Council will meet on 3 June 2010 at 10am at 129 Lambeth Rd, SE1 7BT to discuss the rules. The meeting will be held in public session and papers will be available on our website prior to the meeting. If you would like to attend this meeting please contact Caroline Rose on 020 3365 3507 or caroline.rose@pharmacyregulation.org as space is limited.