14 Jun 2010
The National Pharmacy Association (NPA) this week pressed on with its ‘Lightening the Load’ (burden of administration) project, convening a forum of NPA members to scrutinise the Home Office’s Vetting and Barring scheme.
The scheme is intended to safeguard children and vulnerable adults, but the NPA is concerned that the manner of its application to community pharmacy could be burdensome and unworkable.
Lynne Phair, the Department of Health’s Clinical Advisor on the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act team, attended the meeting to listen to NPA members and respond to their questions.
NPA Chairman, Ian Facer, said: “This is yet another issue on which the NPA is keeping a vigilant eye for bureaucratic overkill. We are pleased this week to have been able to give NPA members an opportunity to put their points directly to the government officials responsible. There remain major concerns about the proportionality of the implementation of this scheme in community pharmacy.”
“Naturally we welcome the new Government’s intention to review the criminal records and vetting and barring regime and scale it back to common sense levels. We urge them to make an announcement without delay.”
The NPA forum also covered the issues of revalidation of pharmacists, plus the early work programme of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). Two GPhC council members – Dr Peter Wilson and Sarah Brown – took questions.
