Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007. The noble Baroness said: I am glad to introduce this order, which provides for a complete overhaul of the legislation regulating pharmacists and extends statutory regulation to pharmacy technicians for the first time. This is an order about patient safety and public protection. It fits within the Government’s programme to modernise the way that health professions are regulated. In a number of important respects, it follows the model used for dentists, nurses, opticians and other health professionals. Our work is making regulation more responsive to patients’ needs and better at protecting them. The order will improve the way in which the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain protects patients by: making clearer the society’s responsibilities in protecting the public and its accountability in doing so; reforming the society’s registration process, bringing pharmacy technicians in England and Wales into statutory regulation for the first time; updating provisions for education and training, and introducing statutory requirements for continuing professional development; supporting an emphasis on fitness-to-practise issues; reforming the society’s statutory committee structure; and making the necessary transitional arrangements from the current system. Pharmacists play a vital part in the provision of healthcare services. They have long been involved in supplying medicines and advising people on their use. However, the practice of pharmacy is entering a new era—one where direct clinical care of patients will become core business. For example, no longer is the prescribing of medicines just the domain of doctors, dentists and nurses. Since 2003, there have been pharmacists who have acted as supplementary prescribers as part of agreed clinical management plans, and some pharmacists are now completing additional training to become independent prescribers of a full range of medicines. That will become commonplace. For the first time, the new community pharmacy arrangements across Great Britain all contain clinical services. The demand for clinical services from pharmacists continues to grow. In England, we will be introducing pharmacists with a special interest who, when suitably accredited, will specialise in a particular clinical area, just like GPs with a special interest. Pharmacists will also continue to play a huge part in educating, advising and supporting other healthcare professionals, including doctors and non-medical prescribers, on the prescription, supply and administration of medicines. Pharmacy technicians are also starting to provide more direct clinical care of patients. This trend is likely to continue as health reforms progress, with more flexible use of staff properly trained to undertake roles safely to increase access to medicines and care. There is clearly great scope for pharmacists to do harm if they do not perform properly. That is why pharmacy was the earliest healthcare profession to be statutorily regulated. The latest legislation to do this was the Pharmacy Act 1954. That has served the profession well but is now out of date and limited in its scope compared with that of other health profession regulators. We wish to ensure that those who use the services of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians benefit from the same safeguards as those recently introduced for doctors, nurses, allied health professions, opticians and dentists. The main provisions to bring pharmacist regulation in line with other professions are the requirement to undergo continuing professional development so that registrants keep their knowledge, skills and aptitudes up to date as long as they continue practising, and a wider range of powers and sanctions relating to investigating and dealing with allegations of impaired fitness to practise. These include impairment through ill health as well as performance and conduct, and impairment related to criminal convictions. New sanctions include the ability to suspend registrants when necessary to protect the public while their fitness to practise is being investigated and adjudicated, and the ability to restrict the practice of those unfit practitioners to areas in which they are safe to practise by attaching conditions to their registration; new powers enabling the society to disclose fitness-to-practise information where that is in the public interest, and to require others to disclose information to it about fitness-to-practise matters; a new duty to co-operate with other public authorities and bodies with an interest in pharmacy matters; and new powers to require practising registrants to be covered by an adequate and appropriate indemnity arrangement, although the implementation of this provision will be delayed while we consider further, in conjunction with the other regulatory bodies, the implications of a court judgment about indemnity arrangements that was handed down over the summer. This order also contains some provisions specific to the world of pharmacy. The Government want to take this opportunity to extend statutory regulation to pharmacy technicians, in recognition of how their role has developed. They now play a major part in dispensing medicines and other areas of pharmacy practice which used to be the preserve of pharmacists. For example, in some hospitals pharmacy technicians will take a medication history of newly admitted patients. It is entirely right that those who use the service they provide should be protected by safeguards appropriate to their level of skill, knowledge and responsibility. The provisions relating to the regulation of pharmacy technicians relate only to England and Wales. This is because of the separate powers of the Scottish Parliament to enact its own legislation in respect of devolved healthcare professions, which are those which were not subject to statutory regulation at the time of the Scotland Act 1998. However, we have agreed in principle with the Minister for Health in Scotland that we will introduce an amending order later this year, which will need to be approved by both the United Kingdom and the Scottish Parliaments, which will extend the scope of this current order to encompass Scottish pharmacy technicians. In order to make sure that the regulation of this profession happens consistently across Great Britain, we do not propose to commence the provisions of this order which relate to the regulation of pharmacy technicians until the amendments to its scope are in place. Another provision peculiar to these professions is the introduction of a division of the regulator’s registers to distinguish between the vast majority of registrants who are in practice and the very few who do not actively practise, such as those who have retired or are on a career break, or who, although they have qualified as pharmacists, are working in fields where they do not practise as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician. For these people it will not be practical or relevant to keep up with continuing professional development or to be covered by indemnity insurance arrangements. I am satisfied that the definition contained in the order of what is meant by ““practising”” is broad enough to ensure that anyone whose work may have either a direct or an indirect impact on those using pharmacy services will be required to meet the requirements for practising registrants. This includes those working in academic research, management, journalism and industry who give advice on pharmacy matters and hold themselves out to be pharmacists or pharmacy technicians. The order contains provisions in the form of offences and the provision of guidance which will support this. Members will appreciate that a piece of legislation of this size and scope has been in production for some time. It has been suggested that issues like the consideration of this order to amend the Pharmacy Act would be better held back until after the release of the findings of the Chief Medical Officer’s review of medical regulation and the parallel review of non-medical regulation in the light of the fifth report of the Shipman inquiry. However, the contents of this order are essentially an overhaul of the regulation of pharmacists and the administration of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, which are long overdue. The extension of statutory regulation of pharmacy technicians is also in the public interest. The subjects covered by this order are issues that need addressing, irrespective of the findings of these two reviews, and they in no way pre-empt either their recommendations or the Government’s response to them. This order has been well researched, and has found broad favour and support from those who are most affected by it. It has been subject to a full publication and public consultation as required by the Health Act 1999, under which the order is made. A copy of the report on the consultation is available on the Department of Health website. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007. 5th Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Baroness Royall of Blaisdon.)