The GPhC Statement of 21 July 2025 explains that part of the rationale for developing a policy on disqualification of pharmacy owners is to clear outstanding cases where the pharmacy owner has already removed all their premises from the GPhC register. The PDA believes that given the concerns that relate to when these businesses were registered premises, at the very least, the names of these owners should be published, rather than this information be withheld from the public.
The issue of open cases where the removal of premises from the register would no longer be available to the regulator does need to be resolved. The development of a wider policy on the potential disqualification of pharmacy owners is something that the PDA has been championing for many years, and this is an opportunity for the regulator to introduce one.
The PDA has often noted that an individual registrant has limited influence on the way a pharmacy operates whilst they are signed in as the responsible pharmacist. In contrast, a community pharmacy owner has effective controls on the working environment, business behaviours, and staffing resources every day, no matter which members of the team are working.
Mark Pitt, PDA Director of Defence Services said, “While an individual pharmacist failing to meet standards would know they risk having their fitness to practise questioned by the regulator and potentially their career as a pharmacist ended, it has often felt like no matter how inappropriately a community pharmacy owner behaves, there will be no meaningful consequences. A policy on disqualifying those owners who fail to meet standards and demonstrate unacceptable behaviours is therefore long overdue.
The GPhC must use this opportunity to show pharmacy owners that they will face the same degree of scrutiny and consequence of pharmacy regulation that individual registrants already operate with every day.
The PDA has previously highlighted examples of behaviour from owners which has included continued failure to meet standards as evidenced at time of regulatory inspection, defending racist behaviour, systemic failure to pay locums their fees, pushing commercial targets over patient needs and denying patients access to NHS service by closing pharmacies for avoidable commercial reasons.
These are just some examples, where if an individual registrant had undertaken equivalent actions they might face regulatory sanctions, whereas as far as we know no such action has happened to the owners concerned.”
The PDA looks forward to seeing a proposed policy from the GPhC that will adequately protect patients, support the proper provision of NHS services, and maintain the reputation of the pharmacy sector by ensuring that inappropriate behaviour by pharmacy owners is effectively tackled.
Learn more
- How bad must pharmacy premises be before regulatory action is taken against owners?
- Light touch regulation of pharmacy owners endangers pharmacy
- PDA calls for regulation of the business behaviours of pharmacy owners who damage the reputation of the profession.
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