Council may review identity requirements for registration
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's identity requirements for those wishing to register as pharmacists may be re-examined in the light of experience that will be gained when this year's preregistration trainees seek to register.
At the June Council
meeting, Jonathan Buisson said that trainees who
wish to use their passports as proof of identity when registering must
submit a copy countersigned by a notary, whose fee could be £60
to £65. Almost all other documentation can be
countersigned by the preregistration tutor, and in some cases a tutor
can countersign the photograph from which a passport is
produced but not the resulting passport. The Pharmacists and Pharmacy
Technicians Order 2007 gives the Registrar considerable discretion in
what evidence is accepted, and he hoped discretion might be exercised
in this case.
Peter Wilson, the Society’s head of postgraduate learning and development,
said that the Society’s identity requirements, agreed by the Council
earlier in the year, had been strengthened. They were now generally in
line with the requirements of other health care regulators, although
not as draconian as some. Some health professions had a history of people
registering fraudulently. A number had registered with the General Medical
Council and practised for some years, putting patients at risk, before
being detected. The requirements agreed by the Council were designed
to reduce the possibility that someone could do the same within pharmacy.
The Council’s requirements would be implemented for registering
those who pass this summer’s registration examination and apply
to enter the profession. If the Council wished to readdress the requirements,
an opportune time would be once the outcome of the 2007 registration
process was known.
Mr Buisson said that he was satisfied with that answer. The Council should
be told of any problems during the registration season.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal