The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 273 No 7312 p239
14 August 2004

Society summary

Society moves closer to regulation of technicians

The Council has agreed several measures related to the future regulation of pharmacy technicians by the Society. The measures, approved at the August Council meeting, are a code of ethics, a document setting out interim fitness to practise procedures for technicians on the voluntary register, guidance for technicians on relevant work experience and guidance for pharmacists who countersign technicians’ registration application forms.

Details of the documents, the Council discussion and other relevant developments will be published in The Journal of 4 September.

The content of the Code of Ethics for Pharmacy Technicians was agreed following consideration of the results of a consultation on a draft version (PJ, 7 February, centre pull-out, PDF (90K)). The Council heard that responses had been received from 118 individual pharmacists and technicians, 11 bodies within pharmacy and eight other groups. In the light of the comments received, the Law and Ethics Committee had made a number of changes to the original draft code.

The Council also noted that the responses had raised some issues that would affect both the Code of Ethics for Pharmacy Technicians and the Code of Ethics for Pharmacists. The Law and Ethics Committee recommended that the two codes should be reviewed together at a later stage so as not to delay publication of the technicians’ code.

The interim fitness to practise procedures were approved for use when applications for inclusion on the voluntary register are made by technicians who declared past criminal convictions and also when complaints are made against technicians on the voluntary register.

The guidance on relevant work experience set out the types of job roles that will be acceptable to the Society as evidence of relevant experience.

The guidance for countersigning pharmacists gives guidance on the application process and the pharmacist’s responsibilities when countersigning application forms and also lists the acceptable job roles.