The Pharmacy Schools Council is supporting pre-reg pharmacists as they prepare to sit the delayed General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) registration assessment by offering a series of online revision events, the body has announced. 

This comes after the GPhC postponed its 2020 registration assessment for 2019/20 pharmacy students to the first quarter of 2021, and which 'severely disrupted the education and registration [of students]', the Pharmacy Schools Council said.

According to the Council, all pre-reg pharmacists will be able to apply for the 25 events, although spaces are limited and tickets will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.  

The events will be hosted by a variety of pharmacy schools from November through to February and will cover topics such as clinical reasoning, differential diagnosis and high-risk medicines.

Delays

The GPhC said the initial delay in providing a date for the assessment was because it had taken time to find and appoint a supplier for the online registration assessment.

‘We needed to carry out a thorough and compliant procurement process to make sure that we can hold an online assessment that meets our rigorous requirements for quality, security and accessibility,’ the regulator said.

The GPhC has now identified a preferred supplier for the assessment, it said, and is currently in contractual discussions with them.

Back in March, the GPhC and the Pharmaceutical Society Northern Ireland announced they were both postponing this year’s registration assessments until ‘the end of this year or in early 2021’, following the initial outbreak of Covid-19.

In September, when the body has not provided an update on when the exam would be held, the presidents of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA) urged the body to clarify when the 2020 registration assessment will take place.