NPA members are being encouraged to complete a short survey on the latest General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) proposals for regulation. In its consultation on developing our approach to regulating pharmacies the GPhC has put forward several key changes to the current inspection process. Email the NPA’s policy manager, Helga Mangion, at independentsvoice@npa.co.uk to take part.

The proposed key changes are as follows:

1. Changes to the types of inspections. Three types of inspections are being considered: routine inspections; intelligence-led and themed inspections. The GPhC said that themed inspections could be adapted to cut across organisational boundaries and health systems and are likely to involve the inspection of multiple pharmacies.

2. Moving to unannounced inspections. This would be a general rule and is aimed at ensuring the results of the inspection reflect the pharmacies everyday standards.

3. Changing inspection outcomes. There could be two possible outcomes at inspection, standards met or standards not met. However, there would be four possible findings at principle level: standards not all met; standards met; good practice, and; excellent practice.

4. Requiring all standards to be met to receive an overall ‘standards met’ outcome. If any standard was found not to be met it would result in a standards not all met outcome overall.

5. Publishing inspection reports. Reports and if relevant improvement action plans would be published on a new website. It would be designed so that the information is easy to search and analyse.

6. Sharing examples of notable practice. A knowledge hub would be created on the new website on the new website to encourage continuous learning and improvement in pharmacy.

Call for case studies on polypharmacy

The NPA is helping Age UK to gather cases studies about polypharmacy and how it affects older people’s health and wellbeing. The case studies may appear in a report by Age UK, and will form the basis for further discussions on this important issue. The case studies may be anonymous or, preferably, shared with the consent of the individual patients concerned. Age UK would be particularly interested in the following:

• Polypharmacy as a result of multiple long-term conditions or a lack of communication during transfer of care

• An older person who is on a very large number of medications where this may be causing poor health

• The experience of someone with dementia and the challenges they face in the case of a complicated medicines regime

• Examples that bring out other important elements of the impact or causes of polypharmacy. In addition, it would be helpful if you could describe how your pharmacy has been able to help the person in the case study.

Please contact the NPA’s press office press@npa.co.uk with your case studies or to discuss further.