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The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has said it supports the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) draft standard that a responsible pharmacist (RP) should be in charge of one pharmacy at a time but warned allowing them to be absent for more than two hours could lead to remote supervision. 

Responding to the GPhC’s consultation on its draft rules and standards for RPs and superintendent pharmacists (SPs), which closed last week, the NPA backed the rule allowing an RP to be absent from the pharmacy for a maximum of two hours during business hours but warned “increasing” those hours “could lead to remote supervision and reduce patient access to a pharmacist”.

The NPA said the two-hour rule would help pharmacies stay open “during short absences, preventing unnecessary closures and inconvenience for patients”.

In its consultation, the GPhC said: “If there is more than one RP during a business day, the total time when any of them is absent must not be more than two hours in a 24-hour period beginning and ending at midnight.

“Also, if reasonably practicable, the RP must be contactable by other pharmacy staff while they are absent…and be able to return to the pharmacy premises with reasonable promptness, if they consider this is necessary to secure the safe and effective running of the pharmacy business.” 

Time served is no guarantee of suitability for superintendent role

The GPhC said the RP must ensure another pharmacist is “available and contactable to give advice” if they cannot return to the pharmacy.

On the consultation’s question of whether the GPhC should set additional minimum requirements for a pharmacist to become an SP, the NPA said it was concerned that “time served is not a guarantee of suitability for the role.”

“Instead, it supports competency-based requirements such as evidence of leadership skills,” the NPA said, insisting there was “no reason to set minimum requirements for a pharmacist to become an RP”.

“Every pharmacist qualifies with the professional ability to act as an RP,” the NPA said.

It also urged the GPhC to provide more guidance on its new “authorisation” rule, which will become legislation in December, allowing pharmacists to authorise pharmacy technicians to carry out, or supervise others in carrying out, the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of medicines.

In January this year, legislation was passed allowing pharmacists to authorise any competent member of the pharmacy team to hand out checked and bagged prescriptions in their absence.

The NPA called “for clarity on authorising controlled drugs” and warned “existing standards do not cover the use of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence”.

Its director of corporate affairs Gareth Jones said: “Changes to authorisation could mark a radical change to community pharmacy practice from the end of this year.

“So, it is important to get the standards in fit shape for securing patient safety, while also facilitating a multiplicity of business models and an ever-expanding range of clinical services.”