Ethnic Minorities Hit Hardest by Fitness-to-Practise Cases

Data released by the regulator reveals that the 680 concerns triaged between April and June 2018 represents a 47% increase, when compared to the same quarter last year.

The published ethnicity data for 2017 also highlighted some big discrepancies, with pharmacists from ethnic minorities over-represented. When compared to the total number of registrants, reported fitness-to-practise concerns were 31.35% higher for Indian pharmacists, 46.61% higher for Pakistani and 77.38% higher for those declared as Asian other.

Over the last few years, the GPhC has been releasing data and reporting on its fitness-to-practise processes, equality and diversity. The GPhC contends that any meaningful analysis of this data was challenging and had the potential to mislead – with 1,100 referrals representing too small a data set and the 10.51% of registrants who chose not to disclose their ethnicity, also over-represented.

Research funded by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in January 2017 found that black and minority ethnic nurses and midwives were over-represented in the NMC fitness-to-practise process. Ethnicity played a role in referrals and cases against these groups were more likely to progress.

In an article in Pharmacy Business recently, I discussed how fitness to practise proceedings can have serious implications for individuals and bring significant disruption to businesses.

For more information or questions on fitness to practise and compliance, please contact Andrew Andrews in our Regulatory Compliance team on 020 7665 0864.

The article was first published in Pharmacy Business.