The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 280 No 7491 p237
1 March 2008

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Upgrading technicians could leave a shortage

Partially trained pharmacy technicians, retired technicians and trained dispensing assistants should be eligible for temporary registration as qualified technicians in national emergencies, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has told the Department of Health.

In its formal response (PDF 40K) to Government proposals to amend the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007 (PJ, 5/12 January 2008, p5), which it published last week, the Society argues that plans to register technicians temporarily as pharmacists could leave insufficient staff to perform work that could only be undertaken by either a technician or a pharmacist under the forthcoming responsible pharmacist provisions.

A second element of the proposal that the Society considers to be of particular concern is the Government’s plan to allow either the Society’s Education Committee or its Continuing Professional Development Committee to carry out the CPD Committee’s functions. This is because the Education Committee deals with the delivery of teaching, learning and assessment, while the CPD Committee makes decisions about whether individuals should be allowed to re-register as pharmacists.