Technicians an exception in regulation proposals
Pharmacy support staff should not be independently regulated, the
Society says |
Pharmacy technicians are to be one of only two assistant professional groups to be regulated by their parent professions.
This is clear from plans to widen the range of health care providers
to come under statutory regulation which have been published by the Government.
Consultation runs from 2 March until 2 July.
The course favoured by the Government is regulation through a Health
Occupations Committee of the Health Professions Council. A second option
is that regulation should fall to the regulatory bodies of the professions
for which the assistants primarily work. This is already the case for
dental therapists and hygienists, who have been regulated by the General
Dental Council since 1986. Consultation on a similar approach for pharmacy
technicians will start later this year. This option has been rejected
for other assistants.
Regulation predominantly by the HPC is expected to keep registration
fees for assistant staff down to £20–£25 a year.
Launching consultation on the proposals, which apply to England and Wales
only, Health Minister John Hutton said that regulation will reassure
patients that they are being treated by staff with appropriate skills,
who are subject to codes of conduct and who meet practice standards.
Staff groups that the Government believes should be regulated include
all those whose members have direct impact on patient care. Direct impact
means face-to-face provision of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and
care, sometimes involving clinical judgement. It can also include technical
analysis and scientific support involving patients’ body samples.
Examples include health care assistants and assistant practitioners,
such as radiography assistants and pathology assistants.
The proposal is that such staff should be subject to statutory regulation
to ensure that those who fall short of required standards can be reviewed
and, if necessary, removed from practice.
Separate consultation on regulatory proposals for Scotland and Northern
Ireland are to be made later, but are expected to recognise the desirability
of a common approach throughout the UK.
Philip Green, director of education and registration at the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society said: “The expectation that the Government would at some
future date require health care support workers to be regulated was a
driver in the Society’s decisions to seek enabling powers to register
pharmacy technicians and to regulate other pharmacy support staff groups
through professional requirements covering their training and competence.”
The Society’s view is that pharmacy support staff are all involved
in practices that are dependent upon or linked to those of pharmacists
and that these support staff should not come within the remit of the
current Health Professions Council. This view is endorsed by a number
of key stakeholders within
pharmacy. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal