The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) is considering legal action over the term “pharmacy professionals” to ensure patients are not “confused” by the different skills and expertise a pharmacist and pharmacy technician have, it revealed last week (June 28).

It comes after the British Medical Association (BMA) said that it was challenging the General Medical Council (GMC) through the courts to stop it from using the term “medical professionals” to describe doctors, physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates.

Read more: ‘Landmark’ first pharmacy technician PGD day hailed by profession

PDA chairman Mark Koziol said that even pharmacists who “participate” in the “blurring of the lines” between their role and that of a pharmacy technician “are doing nothing more than colluding in the demise of their own profession”.

The damning statement comes after legislation permitting pharmacy technicians across the UK, barring Northern Ireland, to supply and administer prescription-only medication (POMs) under patient group directions (PGDs) came into effect last week (June 26).

 

Legal challenge?

 

The term “pharmacy professionals” is being used by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), the NHS and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) to mean both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, according to the PDA.

Similarly, the GMC is describing physician associates (PAs), anaesthesia associates (AAs) and doctors as “medical professionals” ahead of becoming the regulator for PAs and AAs from December 2024, which has led to the legal challenge by the BMA, it said.

Read more: Pharmacy technicians allowed to supply drugs under PGDs from this month

According to the PDA, the BMA is “now launching a judicial review claim against the GMC over its use of this term”, which it says “should only ever be used to refer to qualified doctors”.

The BMA is also liaising with independent grassroots group Anaesthetists United, which is also “planning separate but complementary legal action”, the pharmacy union said.

Read more: Private services steam ahead with pharmacy technician PGD use

Koziol revealed that the PDA will “watch the two existing legal challenges about the use of the phrase ‘medical professionals’ closely to consider what aspects of those cases might be used to challenge the use of the term ‘pharmacy professionals’”.

“Other professions have already started to challenge the government through the courts and soon the time may come for pharmacists to do the same,” he added.

 

“Dangerous” agenda

 

BMA council chair Professor Philip Banfield said that patients have “the right to know” what their healthcare professional is “qualified to do and crucially, not to do”.

The PDA added that patients “must not be confused” as to the role of any healthcare worker, stressing that the roles linked together under the terms “pharmacy professionals” and “medical professionals” are “very different”.

But Koziol said that the “attempted homogenisation of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians…is part of a far wider agenda”.

Read more: PDA: Pharmacy technician qualification levels ‘too low’ to handle PGDs

“What we are concerned about is a much more dangerous, planned and strategic direction that impacts upon the safety of patients,” he added.

After writing to the GPhC and the pharmacy minister about its concerns over the “blurring of the lines” between the two roles , the pharmacy union said that it had “not received a satisfactory response”.

C+D approached the GMC, the GPhC, the RPS and NHSE for comment. The GMC stressed that it has received pre-action correspondence from the BMA and therefore no legal proceedings have been issued at this stage.

 

How did we get here?

 

President of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) Nicola Stockmann last week described the change in legislation enabling the profession to use PGDs as a “landmark moment for patient care” and “the culmination of years of work and lobbying”.

But the reform has proved divisive, with some MPs raising concerns that pharmacy technicians were being “pushed into the frontline of pharmacy clinical practice” and being primed to do “more than they're qualified to do”.

Read more: GPhC to 'assess' pharmacy technician minimum training levels

In March, the pharmacy union argued that allowing pharmacy technicians to use PGDs would leave patients “structurally exposed” and would "blur the distinction” between pharmacy technicians and pharmacists.

And in April, the GPhC announced that it would “assess” whether pharmacy technicians’ minimum training requirements are still “appropriate” given the profession’s growing scope of practice.

Read more: Boots reveals plans for pharmacy technician ‘development programme’

Meanwhile, Community Pharmacy England (CPE) last week reminded the sector that the legislative change does not mean that pharmacy technicians are “automatically included in existing NHS community pharmacy PGDs”.

But with NHS contracts and terms in need of a negotiated update, private PGD providers have steamed ahead.