Busiest year for pharmacy based fitness-to-practise hearings

This year is set to be the busiest ever when it comes to the number of fitness-to-practise inquiries involving pharmacists, with the sector’s regulator already voicing concerns over the rise in associated legal fees.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland (PSI) will launch its annual report today and is expected to address issues surrounding legal costs associated with the fitness-to-practise inquiries, after the actual legal expenditure last year was close to double the budgeted amount.

A report in the most recent issue of the IPU Review, a journal produced by the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, detailed a meeting of the PSI Council in July in which its administration and finance committee chairman said the legal costs “screamed out of the page”.