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The General Pharmaceutical Council has indicated it will abandon plans to anonymise fitness to practise cases, citing unreasonable pressure on resources and inconclusive evidence around the effectiveness of this approach at tackling possible bias towards pharmacists with protected characteristics.

In papers published ahead of its April 24 council meeting, the regulator said that following a trial initiative its project team recommended dropping an approach involving the redaction of identifying information – which was announced in 2022 amid findings that minority ethnic pharmacists were overrepresented in FtP cases, raising concerns around unconscious biases having a potential impact on regulatory decisions. 

The trial, which ran from April 2023 until the end of March 2024, included a total of 84 cases listed for an investigation committee (IC) meeting of which 45 were “considered suitable or able to be redacted”. 

The GPhC found that while there was an overrepresentation of male pharmacists, older pharmacists and those from ethnic minorities at earlier stages in the FtP process, “these variances disappeared” for age and ethnicity after cases were progressed to the IC. 

However, male pharmacists continued to be overrepresented among those under investigation or who received “more serious sanctions”. 

The regulator commented: “These findings are similar to those of a previous analysis covering the period 2021-22 with one exception in relation to the over-representation of Asian pharmacists that went on to be investigated through our triage process.”

While the anonymised approach was deemed to be fairer by registrants who had undergone it, GPhC staffers complained that it made cases “harder to follow” and “longer to review”.

Delays arose in part when the redaction software that was used failed to omit all potentially identifying information, necessitating “increased checking and cross-checking” and using up more resource than initially thought. 

And a “large increase” in IC case numbers during the last six months of the trial posed additional pressures, with staff reporting a “disproportionate” impact on their workload. 

Carrying on this work would necessitate hiring an additional member of staff on around £30,000 a year, it noted. 

The team behind the project recommended that the initiative should not continue, claiming that compared to other health regulators it does “share the same challenges” of disparate statutory outcomes for ethnic minorities and pointing out that most disparities come from concerns raised by the public. 

In addition to the increased use of staff resource, it said: “The evidence, although heavily caveated due to low volumes, has not indicated a positive or negative impact on the potential for bias in IC decision making. 

“We therefore suggest is insufficient to justify the further resource commitment which would be required for a deeper and more meaningful exercise.”

The GPhC said that once it receives an analysis for the 204-25 financial year with regard to pharmacists with protected characteristics in FtP processes it will carry out “further work” to consider “how we can address the disparities identified at the earlier stage of the process,” which it described as the “most significant cause for concern”.