CPD


As THe uCA-NI PeTITION RequesTING susPeNsION OF THIs YeAR’s CPD suBMIssION ReCeIVes sIGNATuRes FROM A THIRD OF THe WORKFORCe, PIF LOOKs AT HOW THe sITuATION AROse


CPD: PsNI announcement on August submission met by uproar


T


he COVID-19 crisis has certainly forced regulatory bodies to find new ways of steering previously


uncharted waters, but while the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) acknowledged the pressure that pharmacists have been working under, the same cannot apparently be said of the Pharmaceutical society of Northern Ireland (PsNI).


In March, the GPhC issued a statement revealing that it had decided to postpone the revalidation submission date for those registrants who were due to submit between 20 march and 31 August (inclusive) ‘due to the challenges and pressures on the pharmacy sector at this time’.


‘Those registrants with a submission date between March and August 2020,’ the GPhC statement continues, ‘will not be required to submit their four CPD records, one peer discussion and one reflective account on their normal submission due date. Instead, they will be required to submit their full revalidation record on their normal submission due date in 2021, ie, with their renewal in 2021.’


Northern Ireland’s community pharmacists naturally presumed that they would be given similar consideration in these challenging time, but it was not to be.


Instead, the PsNI merely pushed the original submission deadline of 31 May back to 31 August, asking pharmacists to do 30 hours of CPD (25 hours of learning and five for writing it up).


The announcement was met with uproar by tired and dismayed pharmacists. social media chat groups were set alight and uCA-NI was contacted by registrants keen to voice their frustration at what they felt was a harsh decision by PsNI.


18 - PHARMACY IN FOCus


The overwhelming response to the PsNI decision was an understanding that PsNI didn’t seem to grasp the conditions in which community pharmacy had been working over the previous four months.


In addition, there didn’t appear to be any acknowledgement from PsNI for the efforts that pharmacists had put in, let alone any thanks or appreciative statement of any kind.


In response, uCA-NI agreed to host a petition so that pharmacists could record their view that CPD should have been suspended for this year. The petition closed with 829 signatories – approximately one third of those registered in NI - and from across all sectors of the pharmacy workforce.


‘On behalf of those pharmacists who had contacted us,’ said Adrienne Clugston, uCA-NI Operations Manager, ‘uCA-NI wrote to PsNI President Dr Jim Livingstone to raise those concerns directly.


‘When PsNI announced the extended date for CPD submission, the reaction from pharmacists was immediate. uCA was inundated with messages of hurt, disappointment and often anger. Overall, the feeling was that the supreme effort they had given to their profession over the worst of the pandemic, had been completely ignored by the regulator.


‘In April, uCA-NI conducted a survey of community pharmacists and we received responses from contractors, managers, employed pharmacists and locums. The results painted a stark picture with only 17 per cent of respondents reporting that they were ‘feeling good’. The majority of respondents told uCA that they were experiencing feelings of anxiety, with approximately half of those reporting it as a major concern.


‘Over 70 per cent had not taken any time off, which is hardly surprising given the workload being experienced in community pharmacy, but most worryingly, only four per cent had sought support. A staggering 26 per cent said they would like some support and suggested peer support and counselling to financial support. The results of the uCA-NI survey were clearly echoed in the recent CPNI Covid-19 survey of Contractors.


‘It is clear to uCA-NI that many pharmacists are in need of a proper break - vital to recuperate from the stresses they have been working and living with for over four months now. Our Board felt that it was important to help channel these concerns to PsNI in an appeal for some acknowledgement of their situation.’


As a result, the uCA-NI Board appealed to PsNI to reflect on their concerns and to ask them to consider removing or reducing CPD requirements for 2020 in acknowledgement of the contribution pharmacists have made during this pandemic.


In response, PsNI’s Interim Registrar Trevor Patterson issued a statement to registrants explaining the Council’s rationale: ‘In coming to its decision, Council was cognisant of the three key objectives for healthcare regulators: ensuring patient safety; setting and upholding standards; and maintaining public confidence in the profession. On average, eleven people are removed from the Register each year for failure to submit an annual portfolio, and nine-thirteen per cent of those assessed fail to meet the standard at the first attempt.


‘Council had previously recognised the pressure on the profession at the height of the COVID-19 surge, which was why it postponed submission and


maintained the amount of CPD at that required for a twelve-month period, during the fifteen-month cycle. Council also discussed the speed at which pharmacists had to change both what they did and how they did it and agreed that it was important that all of the learnings from this should be captured, the CPD process forming an ideal medium for doing so.’


‘This is the correct decision to ensure that CPD standards are upheld, the public are protected and trust in pharmacy is maintained,’ added PsNI President, Dr Jim Livingstone.


‘Patient groups advocate strongly for professionals to keep their skills and knowledge up to date and are reassured by independent evidence that this is being done. I want to commend the pharmacy profession for their significant contribution in difficult circumstances and encourage them to continue to be reflective professionals by documenting and reflecting upon their learning.’


‘The past four months have been among the most stressful that our profession has ever experienced,’ a spokesman for the uCA-NI Board told PiF. ‘Pharmacists demonstrated a high degree of professionalism to ensure that patients continued to receive their medication and to protect public safety and the safety of staff, so we are naturally very disappointed by this decision.’


The ninety-fifth Annual General Meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland is to be held at Society House, 73 University Street, Belfast BT7 1HL on Thursday 15 October 2020 at 7.15pm.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48