The General Pharmaceutical Council has published new standards for Chief Pharmacists which set out their professional responsibilities. They also describe the knowledge, conduct and performance required by a Chief Pharmacist to support their organisation and its staff to deliver safe and effective pharmacy services.
It comes after a 12-week consultation asking for views on the draft standards.
The standards were developed following new legislation which removes the threat of criminal sanctions for inadvertent preparation and dispensing errors by pharmacy staff working in hospitals and similar settings. These defences already apply to pharmacy staff working in registered pharmacies. This will provide consistency across the sector and encourage the reporting of incidents, and subsequently learning from errors.
To benefit from the defences, the hospital (or relevant setting) must have a Chief Pharmacist or equivalent in post, who must be a registered pharmacist with the appropriate skills, training, and experience; and who must meet the standards for Chief Pharmacists.
The standards that Chief Pharmacists must meet are to:
- Provide strategic and professional leadership.
- Develop a workforce with the right skills, knowledge, and experience.
- Delegate responsibly and make sure there are clear lines of accountability.
- Maintain and strengthen governance to ensure safe and effective delivery of pharmacy services.
- The standards apply to all Chief Pharmacists, whatever setting they work in.
The consultation
There were 158 responses to the consultation: 132 from individuals and 26 from organisations. In addition to the consultation, we hosted a webinar on the standards, and held two public and patient forums.
The responses indicated broad agreement with the proposals, with 79% of respondents saying they would strengthen and maintain pharmacy governance; 68% saying they would provide a governance framework that would support staff to report preparation and dispensing errors and 67% saying that the reporting of errors would help staff to learn from those errors.
We have made some changes to the standards in response to what we heard through the consultation we held last year, including adding a requirement for Chief Pharmacists to make sure that staff feel confident and supported when challenging behaviours such as discrimination, bullying, and harassment.
Chief Strategy Officer at the General Pharmaceutical Council, Louise Edwards, said:
“The development of the Chief Pharmacist standards is the first part of a programme of work to strengthen pharmacy governance.
“The programme aims to provide clarity around how pharmacies are organised and managed to help ensure patients and the public continue to receive safe and effective pharmacy care.
“Although Chief Pharmacists may often not provide care directly themselves, their actions have an impact on how patients are treated, and the confidence people have in pharmacy.
“The new standards are helping to strengthen assurance in a critical leadership role, and support governance to make sure patients and the public receive safe and effective care.”