The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7249 p702
17 May 2003

Society summary

CPD — your questions answered

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council has recently made a number of recommendations with regard to mandatory continuing professional development for pharmacists (see p699). The Society’s education division has prepared the following set of questions and answers to help pharmacists understand the thinking behind the proposals

Who will have to do CPD?

Under the proposed new regulations any pharmacist who wishes to practise or offer pharmacy or health care advice, even if only occasionally, will have to undertake continuing professional development and keep a record of it. The term “practice” is used in its widest sense to include pharmacists working in academia, industry, management, pharmacy journalism, and so on. The obligation to comply with the CPD requirements is not limited only to those who have clinical roles or contact with patients.

What if I’m retired?

If you are retired and in do not practise pharmacy in any way and have no wish or intention to offer pharmacy or health care advice, then you will not need to do CPD. You will need to sign a declaration to this effect. This would then place you in the non-practising category on the register. The same applies to those no longer working within the pharmacy profession to any extent, such as accountants and barristers.

What if I do the occasional locum?

It is not the frequency of working that is important: it is the ability to provide a professional service which is the same as that of a pharmacist who works full-time. CPD will apply to pharmacists regardless of whether they work as a pharmacist one day or every day of the year. Anything less may undermine public safety and confidence.

Will I still be able to call myself a pharmacist?

Yes. Everyone on the register will still be able to call himself or herself a pharmacist regardless of which category they are in. Those who have placed themselves in the non-practising category by signing the declaration stating that they will not practise pharmacy or offer pharmacy or health care advice will have to make it clear to the person they are talking or writing to that they are non-practising.

So what are the benefits of being registered as a non-practising pharmacist?

You will continue to stay in touch with the profession, receive The Pharmaceutical Journal, be able to attend branch meetings and use the library. Since you will still be able to use the restricted title you will thereby maintain your standing within the community, eg, you will still be able to sign passport photographs.
You will also continue to be bound by the obligations of the Society’s Code of Ethics.

What about pharmacists who are registered overseas?

The same principles will apply to pharmacists registered with an overseas address as to those registered with an address in Great Britain. If they are practising as a pharmacist in the broadest sense, they must undertake and keep a record of their CPD.

What must my CPD relate to?

It will be good practice for your CPD to relate to your job(s) and more generally your sector(s) of practice. Inevitably this will mean that much of many pharmacists’ CPD will include subjects such as employment law, computer skills or other topics that may not necessarily identify or distinguish them as pharmacists from, say, surveyors or architects.
It will still be good practice to include these subjects if they are relevant to your job but, as a minimum, there should be some CPD within a pharmacist’s record that identifies him or her as a pharmacist.

This does not mean that the learning has to be on clinical or therapeutic subjects if these have no relevance to your job. Keeping abreast of CPD requirements by reading these Q&As would be an example of something that could help distinguish you as a pharmacist. Taking another example, if someone is learning about business planning and can relate it to a pharmacy business or department, this aspect of the learning would also identify them as a pharmacist.

Generally then, some of your CPD should relate to pharmacy in the broadest sense.

So when will all this happen?

The Society’s proposals will be presented to the Department of Health and they will inform the drawing up of an Order under the Health Act that will provide the Society with the necessary powers. The Order should be complete by late 2004 and these proposals could begin to be implemented from 2005.