The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7178 p839-846
15 December 2001

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Patients' forum representatives will only inspect public areas of pharmacies

Inspections by patients' forums of premises used for the provision of health services will not include private parts of pharmacy premises, such as those used for residential purposes, or stock rooms and staff areas. The assurance was given during committee stage debate on the NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Bill on 6 December.

Hazel Blears, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, told the committee that when regulations were made to require pharmacy premises to be open to inspection she would be conscious of the fact that such premises often included living accommodation. She said that where services were provided from private premises, inspection access would generally be restricted to areas to which patients were permitted access and that inspections would be at reasonable times agreed to by the occupier. The Minister was responding to an assertion by Peter Atkinson (Con, Hexham) that inspectors from patients' forums would "have the right to enter the private premises of a pharmacist who lives above the shop and loot his records for any reason".

Mr Atkinson expressed concern that anyone who sought to prevent such a raid without reasonable excuse would be liable to a fine. "As far as I can see, there would be no requirement for such a representative to explain why they wanted to make a search and to obtain permission," he said.

The point was taken up by Oliver Heald (Con, North East Hertfordshire), who said that it was important to be certain that a patients' forum had good grounds for making an inspection, such as a sensibly organised investigation, and that it was not acting because a dissatisfied person had a grudge.

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