The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 275 No 7365 p275
3 September 2005

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Society proposes hard line on returning to practice

Health professionals who have been out of practice for more than five years may be regarded as being unfit ever to practise again, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has told the Health Professions Council.

This view is set out in the Society’s response (PDF 170K) to an HPC consultation (PDF 200K) on future requirements to be met by former practitioners seeking reregistration after a career break for any reason. The Society’s response rejects the HPC view that health professionals who have been out of practice for up to two years should be allowed to return without any retraining or updating. Also rejected are HPC suggestions that those who have not been registered for from two to five years should have to spend 30 days updating their skills and knowledge, with those who have been deregistered for more than five years spending 60 days on retraining.

The Society takes the view that health professionals who have spent more than one year out of practice should have to update their skills. It says that it is the form that any updating takes, plus demonstrable results, that matter and not the amount of time spent on retraining.

So far as those who have been off an HPC register for five years is concerned, the Society says: “The protection of the public requires nothing less than that any person seeking to return to practise after five years be required to complete a course approved by the HPC and to demonstrate against consistent measurable criteria that he is fit to practise.”

As a minimum, the Society says that reregistration should only be allowed for people who can show that they have the knowledge and skills required of new entrants to a profession.

The Health Professions Council is responsible for the registration of arts therapists, biomedical scientists, chiropodists/podiatrists, clinical scientists, dietitians, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, paramedics, physiotherapists, prosthetists and orthotists, radiographers and speech and language therapists.

Mandie Lavin, director of fitness to practice and legal affairs at the Society, said: “As a Society we have to be seen to be taking very seriously public protection and professional competence. … The principles here are absolutely sound and watertight — they are in the public interest.”