Pharmacist Suspended After Failing to Co-operate with GPhC Health Investigation Following Criminal Conviction
Date of Decision: January 23, 2018
Registrant's Role: Pharmacist
Allegations:
- Conviction for a criminal offence involving verbal abuse and spitting while under the influence of alcohol
- Failure to respond to repeated communications (emails and letters) from the GPhC and Medical Assessor regarding a medical assessment
- Failure to co-operate with a GPhC investigation into fitness to practise
Outcome: Six-month suspension order with review
GPhC Standards Breached:
- Standard 5 – Pharmacy professionals must use their professional judgement
- Standard 6 – Pharmacy professionals must behave in a professional manner
- Standard 8 – Pharmacy professionals must speak up when they have concerns or when things go wrong
Case Summary
Allegations:
This case concerned a pharmacist who was referred to the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) after notifying them of a criminal conviction. The offence, which occurred in 2016, involved the registrant being verbally abusive and spitting at another person while under the influence of alcohol. Following this, the GPhC initiated a health investigation due to concerns potentially affecting the registrant’s fitness to practise.
The core allegations centred on the registrant’s persistent failure to engage with the GPhC’s investigation. Despite multiple communications via email and post between March and August 2017, including requests to arrange a medical assessment, the registrant failed to respond appropriately. These failures included not replying to emails from the Medical Assessor and ignoring letters from the GPhC that explicitly warned of the consequences of non-compliance.
Findings:
The Fitness to Practise Committee found the registrant guilty of failing to respond to five separate attempts to arrange a medical assessment. These included specific failures on:
Continue Reading the Full Case
Create a free account or log in to access the complete case summary.
- Full allegations considered by the GPhC
- Panel findings and reasoning
- Outcome of the investigation
- Sanctions considered and imposed on the Pharmacist
- Key professional learning points
Original Case Document
View the Full Determination Document
The original determination transcript is available to registered users.
- Download the official GPhC determination
- Full hearing transcript
- Detailed findings of fact
- Sanction reasoning
- Details of the pharmacy professionals involved