The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has warned the General Pharmaceutical Council’s draft standards for chief pharmacists may not provide a framework to support staff to report errors so they can learn from their mistakes.

In its response to the regulator’s consultation on the standards, the RPS said although the four proposals were “concise and clearly articulated” and “will strengthen and maintain pharmacy governance,” the wording of those standards needed to be “strengthened to reflect the vital nature of the principles described.”

“As they are written, they do not provide a governance framework but do provide a set of principles from which a framework may be generated,” the RPS said.

The four draft standards include providing strategic and professional leadership; developing a workforce with the right skills, knowledge and experience; delegating responsibly and making sure there are clear lines of accountability; maintaining and strengthening governance to ensure safe and effective delivery of pharmacy services.

On the first standard, the RPS focused on the GPhC’s point that chief pharmacists must “embrace research, technology and innovation to enhance safety and improve services.” The RPS said the word “embrace” should be changed “to something which reflects the leading, championing or promoting of these vehicles for improvement.”

The RPS also said “technology” should be amended to “digital technology,” so it references “the dynamic nature of digital developments across healthcare.”

“Though it is referenced in the (consultation), we are thoughtful about how (this) standard reflects the scope of a chief pharmacist role with respect to the collaboration and influence elements,” it said.

“The necessary collaboration and influence may be required within and across integrated, modern health systems and multiple professions including those with extended roles into prescribing.”

Chief pharmacists 'must do more than be aware of' skills

On the second standard, the GPhC said chief pharmacists must “be aware of what skills, knowledge and experience are needed to deliver safe and effective pharmacy services in their setting.” The RPS said chief pharmacists “must do more than be aware of” those skills and knowledge and “demonstrate an up-to-date understanding and good working knowledge of what is necessary.”

“We would also suggest that ensuring these staff are available at the right time to meet the needs of patients is important, with a system which assures the quality of the service being provided,” the RPS added.

The professional leadership body also said the standard should make it clear that chief pharmacists set “the tone for the importance of staff wellbeing” when “near-misses or incidents are reported” as well as “when services are performing well.”

“Supporting the wellbeing of staff during investigations is a key responsibility and in order to do that effectively, the chief pharmacist themselves will need to have support systems in place for their own wellbeing,” the RPS said.

Insisting a culture of safety within pharmacy teams is “essential to strengthening governance,” it said the GPhC’s point that chief pharmacists must “create and maintain a culture of equality, diversity and inclusion” should be changed to “create and cultivate the appropriate safety culture of equality, diversity and inclusion.”

“The standards should make clear the importance of creating a culture of belonging, making sure that pharmacy teams are in an environment free from bullying and discrimination,” the RPS said.

It stressed that staff needing to “know who the chief pharmacist is,” as pointed out by the GPhC, was “not enough.” Staff, the RPS, said, “must be assured that the chief pharmacist is ensuring the conditions for safe and effective pharmacy services are met so that staff may benefit.”

Wording must be 'strengthened' to describe chief pharmacist leadership role

On the third standard, in which the GPhC said chief pharmacists must “provide clarity about the roles, responsibilities and accountabilities of the pharmacy workforce,” the RPS said the wording needed to be “strengthened to describe the chief pharmacist leadership role in the identification, recording, mitigation and monitoring of clinical, medicines, workforce and, where appropriate, corporate risk.”

“Following the recent Department of Health and Social Care pharmacy supervision consultation, the GPhC chief pharmacist standards would benefit from more examples pertaining to the expansion of accountable pharmacy professional roles within aseptic dispensing services, in the event that this is changed,” the RPS said.

“The examples of how to meet this standard should include ‘establish a pharmacy governance and assurance framework which will include the staff roles, accountabilities and responsibilities and reporting structure.’”

Finally, the RPS said the fourth standard needed to reflect the ability of chief pharmacists to “influence the development of governance frameworks in integrated systems.”

Insisting the standard “must give an indication of the comprehensive nature of the governance framework necessary,” the RPS said: “Chief pharmacists must ensure effective management of the service; establish, promote and maintain effective lines of communication.

“In addition, with reference to feedback and learning, the standards would benefit from inclusion of the importance of having effective means of learning from incidents and sharing the learning effectively to demonstrate improvement. This may be sharing learning internally, externally and across professional disciplines.”