We investigate concerns about pharmacists, pharmacy technicians or pharmacies where patient safety could be at risk or public confidence in pharmacy could be affected.
The types of concerns we investigate
We can help you with any concerns about:
- serious unprofessional or inappropriate behaviour, for example abusive or threatening behaviour
- dishonesty or fraud
- criminal conduct
- dispensing errors such as being given the wrong medicine
- working under the influence of drugs or alcohol
Find out what information we need so we can start investigating your concern.
The types of concerns we won’t investigate
We don’t investigate all concerns about pharmacy professionals and pharmacies as we need to prioritise matters that could risk patient safety or affect public confidence in pharmacies.
We won’t be able to help you obtain compensation or an apology.
We usually won’t investigate:
- electronic prescriptions being sent to the wrong pharmacy by a GP or another health professional. You should contact your GP surgery to make sure the prescription is being sent to your chosen pharmacy.
- customer service issues, for example, having to wait to collect a prescription or a pharmacy professional being rude. Please contact the pharmacy or the pharmacy’s head office to speak to them about this.
- contractual issues, for example, opening hours or charges for private prescriptions. You should contact NHS England, NHS Scotland or NHS Wales about this.
- problems with a non-medicinal product, for example, shampoo or hairspray which might be sold in a pharmacy but is not a medicine. Please contact the pharmacy manager about these types of issues.
Most concerns can be dealt with quickly and effectively by the pharmacy’s own complaints process. So, we recommend you raise these types of concern with the manager of the pharmacy or the pharmacy professional you dealt with at the time.
Who else can help with your concern
Before reporting a concern to us, please be sure we’re the right organisation to speak to. It’s also important to be familiar with the likely process we’ll follow once the concern has been reported. If you think we’re the right organisation to deal with your concern, find out how to report it.
Get an update on your concern
To find out how your concern is progressing, please speak to your case officer managing the concern or email concerns@pharmacyregulation.org. The name of your case officer will be on the acknowledgement letter we sent you.
Please quote the case reference in all communications. This will start with the letters ‘CAS’ followed by five numbers and then a mixture of six letters and numbers. For example: CAS-01234-A1B2C3.
For more information, find out how we deal with concerns.