The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7461 p61
21 July 2007

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Separating professional regulation and representation General Pharmaceutical Council and a royal college-type body for the Society

Regulation needs to be “reframed”, Keith Ridge tells the College of Pharmacy Practice

Formation of a General Pharmaceutical Council should allow for time for rethinking the role of regulation, Keith Ridge, chief pharmaceutical officer for England, believes.

Giving the College of Pharmacy Practice’s annual address this week, Dr Ridge said that consideration needs to be given to the scope and responsibilities for regulation. “There is a need to ensure that regulation itself is reframed, described in a different way,” he said. “Regulation is about quality as well as safety. In many ways it is about practice development and improvement as well as fitness to practise.”

Most health care practitioners do not recognise the strategic importance of health care regulators, he said. “This is a great shame for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. The only direct and regular contact it routinely has with most members is to collect a fee and possibly discipline. This clearly influences pharmacists’ views and perceptions of the Society.” Much of the important work the Society undertakes on broader aspects of regulation, such as the accreditation of undergraduate education, remains hidden, Dr Ridge said.

These broader aspects represent strategic issues the General Pharmaceutical Council could tackle, he added. For instance, an integrated undergraduate pharmacy and preregistration course could be developed. Other organisations would have an important stake in this, and a change in funding streams would be necessary for it to come to fruition. But Dr Ridge emphasised: “It is the regulator, supported by a strong professional body, that holds the key to this move.”

He said he recognised that transferring the Society’s regulatory responsibilities direct to the General Pharmaceutical Council would be the simplest way to achieve the Government’s aims for regulatory reform. However, he hoped there would be some time available to consider “the spirit and culture of regulation, as well as the detail”.