The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) launched its new plan for the next five years to uphold safety, quality and public trust in pharmacy.
The regulatory body unveiled its Strategic Plan 2025-30 during a Parliamentary event attended by pharmacy minister Stephen Kinnock on Wednesday (18).
The plan will focus on empowering pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, protecting patients, and building a skilled, agile, and inclusive organisation to carry out our regulatory responsibilities.
GPhC chair Gisela Abbam noted that the role of the pharmacy profession is evolving rapidly.
"This includes pharmacists taking on expanded roles in prescribing medicines, with all newly-qualified pharmacists joining the register as independent prescribers from next year."
She said GPhC's role is crucial in ensuring that "regulation keeps pace with these changes, providing a clear framework that empowers pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and safeguards patient care and public confidence."
GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin said the plan was a "honest appraisal of where we are now, where we want to be, and how we’ll know if we have got there."
He said GPhC will soon come out with a delivery plan, "which sets out in more detail the programmes of work we will deliver in order to achieve the strategic aims and outcomes set out in this plan."
The plan document calls for improving its regulatory performance, and notes that pharmacists see GPhC's role as 'adversarial' with many "seeing the regulator as a body that is there just to charge them fees and punish them if they fail."
The regulatory body wants to engage "constructively with the pharmacy professions to support development and improvement."
Mark Koziol, chairman of The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA), said, "As a pharmacist-focused organisation with patient safety at its heart, we look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with the GPhC towards achieving these objectives on behalf of PDA members.”
Welcoming the plan, professor Margaret Ikpoh, vice chair of the Royal College of GPs (RCGP), said, "Community pharmacy, like general practice, is under considerable pressure, so a strategic plan for pharmacy that prioritises collaboration in the best interests of patient care is encouraging to see."
She noted that community pharmacy provides a vital service and has long worked closely with GPs and other primary care professionals to "ensure patients receive safe, timely and appropriate care."
