Thread by @ShahrarAli

RISK TO PATIENT SAFETY: General Pharmaceutical Council @TheGPhC has published enforcement actions they felt compelled to take against two pharmacies working with #GenderGP on grounds of risk to patient safety. Their public response pharmacyregulation.org/news/our-respo…

Surely there must be more regulation to protect patients in UK from potential malpractice in dispensing medicines on grounds of patient safety? You'd be right. @TheGPhC should be commended for stepping up here. Key enforcement reasons in thread below from pharmacyregulation.org/sites/default/…

"Over last 6 months we have carried out two intelligence-led inspections of pharmacies dispensing prescriptions from prescribers working on behalf of #GenderGP. We did not target these pharmacies because of services they were providing to patients from the transgender community;"

"instead these intelligence-led inspections took place as a result of information received which raised concerns about patient safety ... related to the pharmacy’s supply of codeine linctus, rather than in relation to the pharmacy’s links with GenderGP."

WOW! "These inspections identified these pharmacies were not meeting all of our standards for registered pharmacies & there were SERIOUS FAILURES in governance and management of risk at these pharmacies, and a LACK OF SAFEGUARDING, which presents a RISK TO PATIENT SAFETY."

"We have issued these pharmacies with improvement notices, which require the pharmacies to put in place a number of measures to rectify the failures and to meet all of our standards."

"We (@TheGPhC) are sure it must be of significant concern to you (#GenderGP) that these pharmacies have NOT been meeting STANDARDS for SAFE and EFFECTIVE CARE and that we have identified SERIOUS RISKS to PATIENT SAFETY in the services they provide."

These are verbatim from @TheGPhC letter to #GenderGP - with some word capitalisation by me mainly for sanity's sake. Well done @TheGPhC 👏👏 but when is @CareQualityComm going to step up?

More on reasons for enforcement against a pharmacy operating from Liverpool: "At an inspection on 5 Oct 2020, inspectors identified system wide failures in the governance
and management of risk at the pharmacy, and a lack of safeguarding..."

"The inspectors took into account the volume and type of medicines supplied, the AGE RANGE and POTENTIAL VULNERABILITY of the patients, and the additional risks of working with prescribers based in the EEA and working outside UK regulatory oversight." See inspections.pharmacyregulation.org/pharmacy/enfor…

Enforcement against 2nd pharmacy operating from West Dunbartonshire: "An inspection on 14 Dec 2020 has found SYSTEM WIDE FAILURES in the operation of the pharmacy which presents a SERIOUS RISK to PATIENT SAFETY..."

"The risks are heightened by
the nature of services provided including the online over-the-counter supply of codeine linctus and medicines containing promethazine as the single active ingredient with INADEQUATE RISK MANAGEMENT and SAFEGUARDING in place." inspections.pharmacyregulation.org/pharmacy/enfor…

Second notice to 2nd pharmacy: "You must have an up-to-date policy to safeguard children and vulnerable adults. This must be relevant to the services you provide, taking account of children and vulnerable adults receiving gender dysphoria medicines and medicines liable to abuse."

@TheGPhC to Pharmacist dispensing for #GenderGP: "You must review safeguarding arrangements for prescribers and online providers as part of risk assessment of providing these services. This includes prescriptions for gender dysphoria medicines & your online prescribing service."

"...These must cover additional risks where person does not have a regular prescriber such as a GP, or if there is no consent to share information.
..."

".. You must ensure where a person has given consent, the prescribing service proactively shares all relevant information about the prescriptions they issue with other health professionals involved in the care of the patient (for example their GP)." inspections.pharmacyregulation.org/pharmacy/enfor…

All these documents can be found here. pharmacyregulation.org/news/our-respo… @TheGPhC should be commended for doing its job. 👏👏👏 Other regulators need to step up. #GenderGP