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<p>The Department has not made any assessment of the effectiveness of the General
Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) as a regulator of pharmacy professionals and pharmacy
premises. The Professional Standards Authority, which in its review of the GPhC’s
performance in 2016-2017, found that the GPhC had met all of the standards for good
regulation, including all of the standards for fitness to practise.</p><p> </p><p>Standards
to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of patients and the public are set by
the GPhC. It is important to note that there are very different legal frameworks for
upholding these standards and how the regulator deals with these for pharmacy premises
as compared to pharmacy professionals. 87% of the pharmacies inspected by the GPhC
in 2016-17 were meeting all of the standards it sets. Any pharmacy not achieving all
of the standards is required by the GPhC to implement an action plan to improve the
services they provide. In this period the GPhC agreed 469 action plans with pharmacies
to ensure they improved the services they provide, and 99% of them made the necessary
improvements so that they were meeting all of the standards. In the same period 140
cases were made affecting an individual pharmacy professional’s registration.</p>
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