General Pharmaceutical Council report 50% increase in cases closed before the investigating committee stage in January to March 2023.

GPhC council papers for its meeting on 8 June 2023, reported that 69 cases were closed before the Investigation Committee stage in January to March 2023, compared with 46 cases in October to December 2022, the previous financial quarter.

“These concerns tend to be about delays in medicines being dispensed, lack of stock and unanticipated pharmacy closures, and could reflect the significant pressures being faced by community pharmacy,” GPhC council papers said at the time.

In its latest papers, ahead of the meeting on 8 June 2023, the GPhC said it had seen “some positive improvements in productivity and timeliness in the earlier stages of the FtP process”, citing both the increase in investigating committee stage closures, and “just over 19%” in the number of cases triaged in the last quarter.

However, the papers added:

“Despite the welcomed improvements this quarter, the open caseload continues to increase at investigation and get older.

“This is because there were more new cases coming in than cases closed or referred. As a result, at the end of quarter four, 56% of all cases at investigation stage are over the age of 12 months old.”

Source: Royal Pharmaceutical Society

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