Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): I welcome Canice Ward, who is the chief executive officer of the Pharmaceutical Society. Thank you very much for coming. You have provided us with papers. If you want to give a brief description of the intention of the SL1, we can then, if need be, ask questions.

Mr Canice Ward (Pharmaceutical Society NI): Thanks, Chair, deputy Chair and members. As the Chair said, I am the chief executive officer of the Pharmaceutical Society. Thanks for inviting us to give evidence today to the Committee. I had hoped to be joined by our president, Dr Geraldine O'Hare. I know that some of you have met Geraldine previously in her capacity as president. Unfortunately, Geraldine is otherwise engaged and sends her apologies, so you are stuck with me today.

I will give a bit of background to the Pharmaceutical Society NI. It was established by the Pharmacy and Poisons Order (Northern Ireland) 1925 and has been based at University Street in Belfast since 1933. The society is the professional regulatory body of the pharmacy profession across Northern Ireland and acts as the professional representative leadership body for the profession. We are governed by a publicly appointed council of 14 members, seven of whom are laypeople and seven of whom are pharmacists registered with the society.

The objectives of our regulatory functions have been met by registering and regulating pharmacists, trainee pharmacists and pharmacy premises across NI. On our register, we currently have roughly 3,000 pharmacists, 200 foundation and trainee pharmacists and around 540 pharmacy premises. The society's leadership functions and responsibilities are carried out by the pharmacy forum, which is managed by a board exclusively comprised of pharmacists registered with the society.

As you may already have inferred from the date of our establishment, we are in our centenary year, and it is a matter of great pride for me, as a registrant and a pharmacist, to be the chief executive of the society as it moves into its second century.

We are here today to discuss proposed legislative amendments relating to the initial education and training of pharmacists. As I mentioned, I am grateful for the Committee's time in considering the draft statutory rule (SR). The society and the council are rule-making authorities. We can make regulations with the approval of the Minister of Health. That is why we are here today: the Minister has given consent to meet the regulations. Hopefully, members have had an opportunity to consider the SL1, which details objectives of the proposed statutory rule. It may be helpful to give a very brief overview of what we hope to achieve.

The process for becoming a registered pharmacist in Northern Ireland is set out in statute, namely the Pharmacy (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 and the subordinate Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994. It is the 1994 regulations that we hope to amend.

In general, to become a pharmacist, a person must complete an undergraduate master's degree in pharmacy in an approved university, complete a pre-registration or foundation trainee year that has been approved by our council and complete an examination at the end of that training year. After that, they can apply to join our register and register as a pharmacist.

In recent years, our council has approved a new training pathway for pharmacists that will ensure that pharmacists who join our register will be able to join as independent prescribers, so they can prescribe medicines from the date of registration. That makes changes to the foundation year training and allows for different practice settings, such as across hospital, community and GP practice pharmacy settings. It also makes changes to the examination at the end of the training year.

The legislation, which will, we hope, be made is required to support that new model and the new pathways of training. That is all based in statute. A number of other ancillary matters support that, and they are detailed in the SL1. I can discuss those, if members wish me to do so, but, if not, I am happy to take any questions.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): It all sounds pretty straightforward.

Mr Donnelly: You mentioned that the consultation responses were broadly supportive and that some minor changes were made during engagements with the Department. Will you outline the specific concerns that came out of the consultation and how they were addressed?

Mr Ward: There were a number of concerns. The biggest one, probably, related to educational supervisors. Under the previous regime, during a training year, a pharmacist had a single educational supervisor. There was a "one pharmacist, one trainee" rule, essentially. That has been changed to allow educational supervisors to supervise more than one pharmacist. The concern was that it would dilute the time, oversight or mentorship, as opposed to there being "one singer, one songwriter", Danny. There are other changes to support that change, in that there are practice supervisors as well. In the legislation, there are layers of supervision during the training year to counteract that concern about moving away from the previous regime.

Mr Donnelly: Following on from that, has an impact assessment been carried out to evaluate how it might affect pharmacists' workloads, particularly considering the existing workforce pressures and the Minister's shift-left agenda?

Mr Ward: Not by the Pharmaceutical Society. We approve the training provider, but we have not carried out an impact assessment of what the workforce pressure might be. I am not sure that that is for the Pharmaceutical Society to do.

Mr Donnelly: Are there any additional resources or supports for the pharmacists who take on more than one trainee?

Mr Ward: That is for the health service or maybe the employer. It is not a matter for us.

Mr Donnelly: No problem.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): Nobody else is looking to ask questions. Members, are you content with the merits of the policy and that the statutory rule be made?

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): Canice, thank you very much.