Welcome to the October 2024 edition of Regulate. We have a range of topics for you this month which include an important update on new safety measures for a prescription only medicine and what pharmacy teams need to know to supply the medicine safely to patients.
Our patient safety spotlight article follows fitness to practise concerns and several prevention of future death reports involving a medicine licensed for conditions including hypertension, anxiety and prevention of migraines. We explore the risks it can pose to certain groups of patients and share some key recommendations for pharmacy professionals.
We also highlight the importance of patient consent in relation to the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) as a result of recent concerns dealt with by our investigations team. The concerns were about changes to a patient’s preferred pharmacy without their knowledge, which can undermine trust in the system, but can also cause serious issues such as delays to patients receiving their medications.
Feedback on proposals for extra safeguards to prevent unsafe online supplies of medicines
I’d also like to take this opportunity to make you aware of our proposed changes to guidance for pharmacies providing services at a distance including on the internet. There are just two days left to give feedback on these changes, before our survey closes on 9 October.
The proposed changes aim to help improve patient safety for anyone getting medicines from online pharmacies, to help prevent them from receiving medicines that are not clinically appropriate for them and may cause harm.
Visit the GPhC website to read the proposed updated guidance and share feedback via an online survey by 9 October 2024.
Can you provide insight into our fitness to practise process?
We want to hear the views of anyone who has recently been involved in our Fitness to Practise (FtP) process, including people who have raised concerns, as well as pharmacy professionals who have had a concern raised about them. It will involve taking part in a survey which asks for your thoughts on the process and what your experiences were.
It means you’ll be helping to support the evaluation of our FtP strategy, so we can make sure our approach is effective in supporting those involved, as well as protecting patients and the public.
We are seeking input from anyone involved in cases that have been opened from October 2023 onwards and where the case is now closed.
If you’re interested, please see the take part page for more information.