Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will continue to only need to submit a reflective account when they renew their registration between December 2021 and February 2022, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has confirmed.

This measure was initially put in place in March 2020 to help deal with the pressures related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The extension of these measures comes ‘in recognition of the continuing pressures linked to the Covid-19 pandemic that pharmacy professionals are likely to face this winter’, the GPhC said.

Duncan Rudkin, chief executive of the GPhC, said: ‘We have decided to keep in place the changes to revalidation requirements, as we recognise pharmacy professionals will continue to face significant pressures over the winter period as the pandemic continues. 

‘Pharmacy professionals who have registration renewal deadlines in December, January and February (and with registration expiry dates in February, March and April) will only need to submit a reflective account for revalidation and will not need to submit the other five revalidation records.’

The extension will continue until ‘at least’ the end of February, the GPhC confirmed.

Mr Rudkin added: ‘Our current intention is to resume full revalidation once the emergency powers for the pandemic introduced by the secretary of state for Health and Social Care are removed, but we will continue to keep this under active review.’

It comes after the declaration of emergency which allows flexible provision of pharmaceutical services was extended until 31 January, enabling contractors to make temporary changes to their opening hours.