Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians due to submit their revalidation records from December 2021 only need to present a reflective account until February 2022, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has said.
The regulator said it has decided to extend the changes to its revalidation requirements made in March 2020 “in recognition of the continuing pressures linked to the Covid-19 pandemic that pharmacy professionals are likely to face this winter”.
After introducing the alteration last year, it was then extended until November 2021.
Duncan Rudkin, chief executive of the GPhC, said: “This extension will continue until at least the end of February 2022. We will give pharmacy professionals a minimum of three months’ notice of when full revalidation requirements will be reintroduced, to give pharmacists and pharmacy professionals a reasonable amount of time to get their records ready for submission.
“Our current intention is to resume full revalidation once the emergency powers for the pandemic introduced by the secretary of state for health and social care are removed, but we will continue to keep this under active review.”
Therefore, pharmacy registrants who need to renew their registration in December, January or February are exempt from submitting the other five revalidation records, the GPhC stated.
However, pharmacy professionals are still expected to reflect on one or more of the following three standards when completing their reflective account:
- standard 3 - pharmacy professionals must communicate effectively
- standard 6 - pharmacy professionals must behave professionally
- standard 9 - pharmacy professionals must demonstrate leadership.
