GPhC’s decisions in fitness to practise cases praised in new report

 

The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) is dealing with complaints about registrants fairly, promptly and effectively, a review of its fitness to practise processes by the Professional Standards Authority (PSA) has found.

 

The PSA (formerly the CHRE), which scrutinises the GPhC and other health regulators, audited 100 cases in September 2012. These were cases that the GPhC had closed at the initial stages of its fitness to practise processes in the previous six months. 

 

The report noted good practice with the timeliness of casework, with 21 cases being closed well within the GPhC’s targets for doing so. Investigations were found to be robust and risk assessment also continued to be identified as a strength, with evidence of risk assessment found in all of the cases audited. This enables the regulator to assess what action should be taken and how the case should be prioritised in order that the most serious cases are dealt with first.

 

The PSA also recognised improvements the GPhC had made in its management of fitness to practise cases during the initial stages, including the introduction of a quality assurance scheme which focuses on key stages of the decision-making process.

 

The audit report found ‘nothing that gave cause for concern about the GPhC’s responsibilities for public protection and maintaining the reputation of the profession.’ The report included recommendations for improvement in relation to record keeping and in some of the correspondence sent, but welcomed the fact that work was already under way to make these improvements.

 

This work includes a comprehensive review of the correspondence sent to registrants and a new system for assuring the quality of the information recorded during investigations.

 

Duncan Rudkin, the Chief Executive of the General Pharmaceutical Council, said:
“We are pleased that the PSA has recognised the progress we have made in dealing with complaints about registrants fairly, promptly and effectively. We are continually working to make further improvements, including in the areas recommended in this report, in order to meet the high standards we want to achieve in our management of fitness to practise cases."