New pharmacy consultation launched

Yesterday, the Department of Health and Social Care launched its consultation on pharmacy supervision.

The consultation relates to plans set out in the Primary Care Recovery Plan to give pharmacy technicians a greater role in supporting customers and patients with the safe dispensing of medicines. Allowing pharmacy technicians to take on a broader role could free up time for pharmacists to provide more clinical care and may make it easier for patients to get the medicines they need when they need them.

Currently, the preparation, assembly, dispensing, sale and supply of prescription only medicines can only be carried out by (or under the supervision of) a pharmacist. The proposals being consulted on would allow pharmacists to delegate more functions to pharmacy technicians.

The proposals aim to:

• Enable pharmacists to authorise registered pharmacy technicians to perform tasks that would otherwise need to be performed by or under the supervision of pharmacists
• Let registered pharmacy technicians take primary responsibility for the preparation and assembly of medicinal products in highly specialised sterile manufacturing units in hospitals
• Allow checked and bagged prescribed medicines to be handed out in a retail pharmacy in the absence of a pharmacist – where authorised by a pharmacist. This aims to bring an end to situations where a patient cannot pick up their prescription when the pharmacist is at lunch or otherwise unavailable.