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Timer set to establish the GPhC
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Timetable
The planned timetable for the creation of the GPhC and the transfer
of regulatory functions:
November 2007
Health and Social Care Bill published
May 2008
Consultation on new S60 Order
Second half 2008
Royal Assent for Health and Social Care Bill
April 2009
S60 Order made
July 2009
Shadow GPhC created
January 2010
GPhC fully operational |
Moves towards stripping the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of its regulatory
functions and vesting them in a new General Pharmaceutical Council began
in earnest on 15 November 2007, with the First Reading in Parliament
of the Health and Social Care Bill.
“This is D-day for pharmacy,” Keith Ridge,
chief pharmaceutical officer at the Department of Health, said this week. “The
Bill contains power to remove all regulatory powers from the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society and transfer them to a new regulator, the GPhC.
“After years of
debate and speculation, after the White Paper ‘Health, assurance
and safety’, we are where we are. We have no choice. We have to
be like the other health professions.
“The Society will be split and it
is up to us to make sure it happens professionally, safely and effectively.”
The Bill itself makes no reference whatsoever to the planned creation
of the GPhC.
Instead, it seeks to amend Section 60 of the Health Act 1999, under which
a series of Orders in Council (secondary legislation) have already been
used to alter the regulatory machinery of many health professions.
The proposed amendment will allow S60 Orders to be used to amend the
following regulatory systems: • Registration of pharmacy premises
• Regulation of retail pharmacy businesses
• Enforcement of the Medicines Act
• Enforcement of relevant provision of the Poisons Act 1972 and the Poisons
(Northern Ireland) Order 1976
• Authorisation of surveillance by the
pharmacy regulator
Jeannette Howe, head of pharmacy at the DoH, said: “We need to
be able to transfer functions of the Society in relation to premises
and businesses, as well as to individuals.”
The proposed amendment also explicitly states that a S60 Order may not
be used to abolish the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Pharmaceutical
Society of Northern Ireland or the GPhC once it has been established.
The planned S60 Orders will be used to:
• Establish the GPhC
• Transfer all the Society’s statutory functions to the GPhC
• Transfer statutory functions of the PSNI to the GPhC if the ministers
for Northern Ireland decide to follow that course
Ms Howe said that the S60 Order approach had already been used successfully
to update the regulation of pharmacists by the Society and had the advantage
of being able to keep pace with the changing needs of the professions
without the sort of delay that occurred with primary legislation because
of constraints on Parliamentary time.
Dr Ridge confirmed that the profession should expect more than one S60
Order before the reform of pharmacy regulation is complete. “The
first S60 Order will include essential things,” he said. “The
S60 process means that we can tackle the project at large in several
pieces,” he said. One of these pieces will be the introduction
of mandatory continuing professional development.
“The DoH is currently drawing up a detailed critique of the [Pharmacists
and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007],” Dr Ridge said. “It
is likely to delay regulation on some outstanding parts, such as [mandatory]
CPD and rules around education.”
He added that the aim will be to bring in CPD at the same time as the
GPhC, but to target it at certain sections of the profession. “Pharmacist
prescribers are likely to be the first target,” he stated.
Dr Ridge said that the Pharmacy Regulation and Leadership Oversight Group
(PRLOG), which is working with ministers to establish the GPhC and to
oversee the formation of a professional leadership body, had met twice
and would continue to meet four times a year.
He emphasised that this
was an oversight
group with no executive role (PJ, 21 July, p61). It
has two work streams. One, on establishing the GPhC, is led by Dr Ridge,
while the other, on regulatory support, is headed by Peter Noyce, professor
of pharmacy practice at Manchester University.
“PRLOG will not be successful if it works in isolation,” Dr
Ridge said. “It will need the support of the profession.” To
this end, a
website will be created so that people can follow progress which they
will be able to use to send their thoughts to the group.
The PRLOG’s terms
of reference
Other provisions of the Health
and Social Care Bill
The Health and Social Care Bill contains a number of other provisions
of relevance to pharmacy.
It will enable the creation of an Office of the Health Professions
Adjudicator to take over the adjudication of fitness-to-practise
cases involving doctors and opticians. Ms Howe said that the OHPA
would be able take over the adjudication of cases involving other
professions only with the agreement of the regulator involved.
There will also be a new Care Quality Commission to take over the
functions of the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection,
the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health
Act Commission.
All providers of health services and adult social care, including
NHS providers, will be required to register with the CQC. In the
case of community pharmacies, registration is expected to be required
only in respect of any specialised services they provide that are
beyond the normal remit of professional pharmacy services.
This
is expected to apply to services that were previously carried
out by hospitals and which have been transferred to community-based
providers.
The Bill is also being used as the means by which responsibility
for the NHS remuneration of community pharmacies (the global
sum) will be transferred to primary care trusts in England and
local
health boards in Wales. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal