The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7407 p5
1 July 2006

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NPA wants registration/membership link broken

Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and registration as a pharmacist should cease to be linked, the National Pharmacy Association has said.

In this respect, the NPA has taken a contrary position to the Society — which wants the link to continue — in its response to the Government’s consultation (PDF 2.8MB) on the planned Section 60 Order on future professional regulation. The NPA says that the proposed Order is about regulating pharmacy as a safe and quality service and that it cannot see how Society membership adds anything to this.

The NPA has also told the Government that it is worried about the cost to Society members of moving from a single Statutory Committee that considers disciplinary matters to six new committees with various functions.

Two of the draft Order’s proposals have been identified as taking England and Wales out of line with the rest of the European Union, in one case, and Scotland, in the other. The NPA says that no other part of the EU considers the attitudes and behaviours of prospective pharmacists something that should be measured before they can be registered. If this proposal goes forward, the association says that explicit reasons for rejecting any applicant should be set out and that there should be an appeal process.

Plans to treat pharmacy technicians in England and Wales differently from those in Scotland also come in for criticism. The NPA says that the draft Order covers pharmacists and technicians in equal measure and fails to reflect the fact that pharmacists supervise technicians’ work. The association favours technician registration, but says that it should not be mandatory in England and Wales, but voluntary in Scotland.

The NPA has also identified two respects in which it believes the draft Order would give the Society too much legal power. First is the proposal to allow the Society to require people to provide information about a pharmacist’s or technician’s fitness to practise and to seek court orders against them if they fail to do so within 14 days. “The powers go too far,” the NPA says. However, it adds that if this power is to be given, people should be allowed 28 days to respond before court action is taken.

It also says that the proposed 28 days is not long enough for people to launch appeals against being struck off and that it should remain at three months. The NPA sees no reason for shortening the appeal period, particularly given that the Society will have powers of immediate suspension.