United Kingdom

See also: Consultant pharmacist

In the United Kingdom, most pharmacists working in the National Health Service practice in hospital pharmacy, community pharmacy or in primary care trusts. Pharmacists are able to undertake additional training to allow them to prescribe medicines for specific conditions.^[15]

In British English (and to some extent Australian English), the professional title known as "pharmacist" is also known as "dispensing chemist". A dispensing chemist usually operates from a pharmacy or chemist's shop (also called "drug store" elsewhere), and is allowed to fulfil medical prescriptions as well as dispense over-the-counter drugs and other health-related goods.

The new professional role for pharmacist as prescriber has been recognized in the UK since May 2006, called the "Pharmacist Independent Prescriber". Once qualified, a pharmacist independent prescriber is able to prescribe any licensed medicine for any medical condition within their competence. This includes controlled drugs except schedule 1 and prescribing for the treatment of addiction.^[16]

Education and registration

Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy premises in Great Britain are regulated by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). The role of regulatory and professional body was previously carried out by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, who remained as a professional body after handing over the regulatory role to the GPhC in 2010.^[17]

In order to qualify as a pharmacist in Great Britain, the following criteria must be met:

• Successful completion of a 4-year Master of Pharmacy degree at a GPhC accredited university. Pharmacists holding degrees in Pharmacy from overseas institutions are able to fulfill this stage by undertaking the Overseas Pharmacist Assessment Programme (OSPAP), which is a one-year postgraduate diploma. On completion of the OSPAP, the candidate would proceed with the other stages of the registration process in the same manner as a UK student.

• Completion of a 52 week pre-registration training period. This is a period of paid employment in an approved hospital or community pharmacy under the supervision of a pharmacist tutor. During this time the student must collect evidence that they have met certain competency standards set by the GPhC.

• A pass mark in the GPhC registration exam. This includes a closed-book paper and an open book/mental calculations paper (using the British National Formulary and the GPhC's "Standards of Conduct, Ethics and Performance" document as reference sources). The student must achieve an overall mark of 70% which must include at least 70% in the calculations section of the open book paper.

• Satisfactorily meeting the GPhC's Fitness to Practice Standards.^[18]

Pharmacists in Northern Ireland are regulated by the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland. They operate separate but broadly similar registration requirements to the GPhC.^[19]

There are currently too many Pharmacists graduating in the UK, making it very difficult for newly graduated Pharmacists to secure employment. One of the reasons for this is the fact that many new Schools of Pharmacy have opened in the past decade. In a survey conducted by the BPSA it was found that 92% of registered Pharmacists thought that there were too many Pharmacists in the UK.