A patient’s guide

A patient’s guide

The GPhC investigates complaints that indicate a pharmacy professional’s fitness to practise may be impaired. You can find out how to make a complaint here.

What kind of issues might I report to the GPhC?

The GPhC investigates a wide range of issues including:

• Errors in dispensing your medication
• Sexual assault
• Pharmacy professionals working under the influence of alcohol or drugs
• Fraud
• Theft
• Dishonesty

What kinds of issues shouldn’t I report to the GPhC?

The GPhC is unable to assist with:

• Claims for compensation
• Customer service issues e.g. not receiving an apology from pharmacy staff
• Contract issues e.g. hours of opening, charges for private prescriptions

If your complaint relates to any of the above issues it would be more appropriate for you to refer your complaint to your local Primary Care Organisation or to the pharmacy directly.

If you are seeking an apology or explanation you should first contact the pharmacy where the incident you are concerned about occurred. Many complaints about a pharmacy professional can be settled locally and more quickly by the pharmacy professional’s employers.

If you want to make a complaint about the provision of an NHS service from a pharmacy, you can also contact your local Primary Care Organisation.

What information should I include in my complaint?

If possible, you should include the following information in your complaint:

• Your full name, address and contact details. This will allow us to contact you to find out more information about your complaint.
• As much information about the pharmacy professional as you can provide, such as their name, their registration number and their place of work.
• As much information about the incident as you can provide, such as the date of the incident, what happened, the details of any witnesses and details of any harm caused as a result of the incident.
• Information about what action you have already taken to resolve your complaint, such as who you have complained to and what action has been taken

Please retain evidence such as packaging, prescriptions and receipts.

What happens next?

Initial review

We do not investigate all the complaints we receive.  In order to decide whether we should investigate your complaint we will review it to determine if the information you have provided suggests that a pharmacy professional’s fitness to practise may be impaired.

If your complaint does not call into question a pharmacy professional’s fitness to practise then we will write to you explaining why we cannot deal with your complaint and, if possible, direct you to another organisation that might be able to help.

If your complaint is a matter that we can deal with then we will write to you to confirm that we are investigating your complaint. A case will be opened and your complaint will be investigated by an Inspector or a Case Manager.