New standards for chief pharmacists released

The new standards apply to all chief pharmacists, regardless of the setting they work in 

Following a review of feedback from last year's consultation on draft proposals, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has published new standards for chief pharmacists.

The standards outline responsibilities, knowledge, conduct, and performance required by a chief pharmacist to support their organisation and its staff to deliver safe and effective pharmacy services.

The regulatory body observed that the updated standards reflect new legislation removing the threat of criminal sanctions for inadvertent preparation and dispensing errors by pharmacy staff working in hospitals and similar settings.

Given that these protections already apply to pharmacy staff in registered pharmacies, this new legislation aims to standardize practices across the sector, thereby encouraging the reporting of incidents, and subsequently learning from errors.

To benefit from the defences, the hospital (or relevant setting) requires a chief pharmacist or equivalent in post, who must be a registered pharmacist with the appropriate skills, training, and experience.

The chief pharmacist must also meet the standards, which include:

• Providing strategic and professional leadership.

• Developing a workforce with the right skills, knowledge, and experience.
• Delegating responsibly and make sure there are clear lines of accountability.
• Maintaining and strengthening governance to ensure safe and effective delivery of pharmacy services.

The new standards apply to all chief pharmacists, regardless of the setting they work in.

Louise Edwards, chief strategy officer at GPhC, described the development of the chief pharmacist standards as the first part of their programme to strengthen pharmacy governance.

“The programme aims to provide clarity around how pharmacies are organised and managed to help ensure patients and the public continue to receive safe and effective pharmacy care,” he explained.

Edwards acknowledged that while chief pharmacists often do not provide care directly themselves, their actions have an impact on patient care and people’s confidence in pharmacy.

“The new standards are helping to strengthen assurance in a critical leadership role, and support governance to make sure patients and the public receive safe and effective care,” he added.

The GPhC received 158 responses to the consultation on the draft standards, 132 from individuals and 26 from organisations.

Most respondents showed agreement with the proposals, with 79 per cent stating that the changes would strengthen and maintain pharmacy governance.

While 68 per cent of respondents said the new standards would provide a governance framework supporting staff to report preparation and dispensing errors, 67 per cent agreed that the reporting of errors would help staff learn from those errors.

In addition to the consultation, the GPhC hosted a webinar on the standards and organised two public and patient forums.

After taking into account the feedback, GPhC has made some changes to the standards, including adding a requirement for chief pharmacists to ensure that staff feel confident and supported when challenging behaviours such as discrimination, bullying, and harassment.