More accountability

摘要

We have considered issues of concern surrounding the delegation of accuracy checking in community pharmacies (PJ, 14 January 2012, p45), in particular where this work is delegated to staff who are not registered pharmacy technicians. The General Pharmaceutical Council appears to refer to such an unregistered individual as an "accredited checking assistant" (Regula+e, February 2012, p17). However, within pharmacy-owning companies there are sundry job roles in which many unregistered individuals undertake work that impacts directly on the safe and effective provision of services to the public. Staff known commonly as "dispensers" — ranging from those undergoing national vocational qualification 3 studies to become technicians to those who have negligible training but have been enrolled on an NVQ2 dispensary assistant course — perform dispensary tasks, including the assembly of prescription medicines.