The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7239 p326
8 March 2003

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National Pharmaceutical Association (www.npa.co.uk)

NPA will not budge on pharmacy technician registration by Society

The National Pharmaceutical Association is standing firm in its opposition to the registration of pharmacy technicians by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

In a response to the Society's consultation document on the regulation of dispensing assistants and medicines counter assistants (PJ, 14 December, 2002, p868) the NPA agrees that registration should not be required. It also takes the opportunity again to challenge the Society's decision to move towards compulsory registration for pharmacy technicians.

The NPA view, agreed at its February board meeting, is that the Society is right to say that medicines counter assistants and dispensing assistants need not be registered because they do not work unsupervised. So why does the Society say that technicians in community pharmacies need to be registered when they do no unsupervised work either, it asks.

At the same meeting, the NPA board decided to support a Government proposal that it should no longer be an offence to supply ampoules of sterile water, swabs, spoons, bowls and citric acid to drug addicts. As the law stands, this is prohibited under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. But board members criticised the exclusion of ascorbic acid powder from the list. They noted that this is a weaker acid than citric acid and is less likely to cause vein damage if too much is used.

They agreed to ask the Home Office to consider how other items could be made available in the future without having to change legislation. One option would be to provide in Regulations that items of paraphernalia listed as approved by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs could be legally supplied. The council could then add items to the list as necessary.