The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 267 No 7164 p332
8 September 2001

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“Guide to the Society” articles

Helen Darracott (the Society’s head of ethics) explains how the Professional Standards Directorate helps pharmacists practise to high standards

Information service

Inspectorate

Registration section

Animal medicines

Promoting high professional standards

The Professional Standards Directorate has responsibility for many of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s regulatory functions, including maintaining the registers of pharmaceutical chemists and pharmacy premises, and enforcing parts of the Medicines Act 1968 and Poisons Act 1972.

The directorate’s three divisions are responsible for different aspects of pharmacy or pharmacy practice: pharmacy law, professional ethics and standards, and animal medicines. The directorate supports the work of the Council’s Law and Ethics Committee and Infringements Committee in promoting and maintaining good standards of pharmacy practice. It also provides the secretariat for a number of Council working parties.

The directorate plays a key role in assisting the Society’s Council to identify and take forward opportunities for the profession in areas such as legislative changes, regulatory developments and standards of professional practice and conduct. Recognising and anticipating such developments and ensuring that they are given necessary priority through to implementation is a crucial aspect of its work.

Information service

A team of pharmacist advisers provides the directorate’s information service, which covers a wide range of legal, ethical and professional matters. Requests for information are received from pharmacists in all spheres of practice as well as from many different bodies, including health authorities and trusts, the police, prisons, government departments and agencies, the pharmaceutical industry, other professional bodies and members of the public. Many questions are dealt with in writing, but straightforward enquiries are answered immediately by telephone.

The directorate does not advise in contractual disputes between members and employers, or in claims for compensation, for which specialist advice is needed.

The success of the service has resulted in the directorate publishing fact sheets on the most popular subjects. These fact sheets are available from the directorate on receipt of a stamped addressed envelope or from the law and ethics section of the Society’s website.

Inspectorate

Pharmacy is unique among health care professions in having an inspectorate. The directorate is aware that for many pharmacists, especially in community practice, the inspector is the public face of the Society.

The role of the inspectors is multifaceted. Important aspects of their role are in protection of the public and ensuring that the Society complies with its statutory enforcement duties. They promote high standards of practice by monitoring compliance with the Code of Ethics and providing advice to pharmacists and pharmacy owners to encourage high standards of practice. By monitoring standards of premises and practice during inspections, and where necessary seeking to improve them, the inspectors help maintain the good standing of the profession.

Over the past 15 years or so, the Council has recognised the importance of building and enhancing relationships between the inspectorate and the membership. The prenotification scheme for routine visits was the first of several changes to the inspectors’ practice that have enhanced the relationship. The inspector’s update sheet sent with the prenotification letter highlights topical issues and matters on which the inspectors are most frequently consulted. It also provides more practical help than can be covered within the confines of a routine visit, because the inspectors are conscious that their visit intrudes into the pharmacist’s working day and try to keep their visits as short as possible.

On average, each inspector covers about 700 pharmacies. They aim to visit each of them every 18 months, but may visit more frequently if additional support is required. The vast majority of routine visits (about 75 per cent) are notified, but sometimes a routine visit will be unannounced in order to make effective use of time if the inspector finds himself in a particular area. Inspectors also undertake monitoring for a number of health authorities and participate in the medicines testing scheme by collecting samples on behalf of the Medicines Control Agency.

A major part of the directorate’s work, although it affects few pharmacists, is investigating complaints. The Society receives complaints from a variety of sources about a wide range of issues, including dispensing errors, the supply of date expired products, the standards of service provided, and the attitude or behaviour of pharmacists and their staff. The inspector’s prime concern in investigating a complaint is to find out what happened, how it happened and what can be done to prevent a recurrence. The inspectors use the lessons learned from investigating complaints to advise all pharmacists and so improve the service to the public. In many cases the inspector visits the complainant to establish the exact nature of the complaint and then the pharmacy to establish how and why the problem occurred. Sometimes inspectors find complaints to be without foundation. However, if appropriate the inspector reviews with the pharmacist the systems in place at the pharmacy and makes recommendations for improvement if weaknesses are identified.

By handling complaints constructively, fairly and promptly the inspectorate plays an important part in maintaining public confidence in the profession. Better handling of complaints within pharmacies would reduce the amount of time spent by inspectors on this activity. It is a matter of fact that many complainants tell the inspector that they have complained to the Society solely because the pharmacy involved has handled their complaint poorly in the first instance.

Registration section

The registration section is responsible for maintaining the statutory registers of pharmacists and pharmacy premises. It processes the 60,000 or so personal and premises retention fees that become due on 1 January each year. The workload therefore has marked peaks in the first three months of the year, when retention fees are paid, and in the summer when most preregistration trainees complete their training and seek to register. There are, however, amendments to be made to the registers throughout the year including name and address changes, removals following the death of a member, transfers of ownership of pharmacy business, and so on. The staff work to tightly defined procedures because of the importance of accurate statutory registers. It is surprising how many pharmacists forget to notify the Society of their change of address. All too often the crunch comes when the pharmacist is struck off the Register for non-payment of fees. Any pharmacist or pharmacy owner who believes the register might not be accurate should notify the registrations section in writing before it is too late.

The directorate’s overseas registration department handles applications from pharmacists outside Britain who wish to register with the Society. Ensuring that complete up-to-date and accurate documentation is received in support of such applications is crucial to this process. Like the other health professions, recruitment abroad is increasingly necessary and the directorate also provides administrative support for the Society’s Adjudicating Committee, which considers an increasing number of overseas applications.

Animal medicines

The animal medicines division is based at the National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh, Warwickshire. It maintains registers of agricultural merchants and saddlers, and manufacturers and distributors of medicated/ zootechnical feedstuffs. Five inspectors, supported by administrative staff at Stoneleigh, work nationwide to ensure that, when medicines are sold or feeds for animal use are manufactured, these outlets meet all legal requirements and standards required by relevant codes of practice.