Privy Council approves ending of reciprocal registration arrangements
in mid-2006
The Privy Council has given its approval to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's proposal for ending its reciprocal registration agreements with the registration authorities in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as from noon on 30 June 2006 (PJ, 23 April, p495). After that date pharmacists educated in those countries will have to use the Adjudicating Committee process to register in Britain.
The Society retains its reciprocal registration agreement with Northern
Ireland and the automatic registration of European Economic Area nationals
with appropriate European diplomas. The Adjudicating Committee route
now applies to all other applicants who “hold a pharmaceutical
qualification or qualifications comparable to an approved degree in pharmacy
awarded in the UK but granted by a university, or a body of comparable
academic status, outside the UK”.
The Council’s decision
to end the reciprocal registration arrangements was made in 2003 (PJ, 11 October 2003, p524) but it deferred a decision
as to the date until after it had consulted the pharmacy regulators in
Australia and New Zealand. The date has been chosen to coincide with
the legislative timetable and with the academic year and registration
cycle in those countries.
A proposed
Byelaw amendment fixing the date was published in April (PJ,
23 April, p505). It was confirmed by the Council after the completion
of a 60-day consultation period and was then submitted to the Privy Council,
which approved it on 15 August.
The Society says that its decision to apply the same registration route
to all pharmacists from outside the UK other than those qualifying under
the European Directives was made in the interests of fairness and transparency.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal