GPhC CPD: Online Courses Pharmacists Can Use for Revalidation

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 3 November 2026

What GPhC CPD records do you submit each year?

At each annual renewal, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians submit six revalidation records through myGPhC: four CPD entries, one peer discussion and one reflective account. The GPhC’s revalidation framework says at least two of the four CPD entries must be planned, and its renewal page says at least one of the six records must reflect on any annotation or specialist role you hold, such as independent prescribing. What counts as evidence behind each record, and how to keep it, is set out in our guide to GPhC CPD evidence for pharmacists; this guide is about choosing the online courses that feed those records.

Can an online course count as GPhC CPD?

Yes. The framework does not set hours or points and does not list approved courses or providers. It defines a planned activity as one where you decide in advance what you want to develop, and it asks you to use a variety of methods across your four entries. An online course chosen for a reason in your own practice fits that definition, provided you then apply it and can give a real example of the benefit to patients or the public.

Two limits are worth knowing before you buy. A course on its own is not the record: the reviewers read your description of why you chose it, what you did with it and who benefited. And four online courses in one year would not give the variety of methods the framework asks you to try, so pair a course with other activity such as an audit, shadowing or a team discussion.

Which online courses can pharmacists use for revalidation?

Choose the course from the gap in your own practice, then decide which of the six records it will support.

Keep the certificate, with its course title, date and CPD hours, behind the entry it supports. The pharmacy ethics and professionalism courses are written around the GPhC’s standards; the subject courses are written for all UK healthcare professionals and applied to pharmacy in your record.

How do you write a planned CPD entry from a course?

The GPhC’s planned entry asks three things. Here is how they read for a community pharmacist who took the confidentiality course after a patient’s conversation was overheard at the counter.

1. What are you planning to improve? “How I protect patient confidentiality and privacy at the counter and in the consultation room, because two recent conversations about medicines took place where other customers could hear.”
2. How are you planning to do it? “An online course on confidentiality in healthcare practice (2 CPD hours, certificate dated), then a review of where the team holds conversations about medicines.”
3. How has it benefited the people using your services? “We now offer the consultation room for any conversation about a new medicine or a sensitive supply, and in the month since, two patients have taken that offer and said they were glad of it.”

The benefit example is the part reviewers look for, so write it after you have applied the change, not on the day you finish the course.

GPhC CPD after a concern or with conditions

One of the GPhC’s core criteria for revalidation records is that they “adequately reflect any special conditions that have been placed on your practice”, for example by a fitness to practise committee. If you have conditions, at least one record each year should show the remediation they ask for: the course on the subject of the condition, what you changed, and the effect. If a concern is still open, the same course and reflection serve two purposes: they are part of your response to the GPhC, and they become a CPD entry at your next renewal. How a GPhC concern runs, and which course fits each kind of concern, is in our GPhC courses guide.

What happens if your GPhC CPD records are reviewed?

The GPhC selects records for review partly at random and partly by target. Two trained reviewers, a pharmacy professional and a lay reviewer, read them against the framework, and the GPhC says feedback can take up to six weeks; after a review it will not review your records again for the next two years. Records that miss a core criterion, such as being late or having fewer than two planned entries, enter the remediation process, which gives you another chance to submit them in an acceptable form. Records that meet the core criteria but miss a feedback criterion receive developmental feedback only.

Our courses for GPhC CPD and the Bulk Buy offer

The courses here open straight after purchase, run online at your own pace and finish with a dated certificate, whether you are filling a gap in your revalidation records or answering a GPhC concern.

More courses for revalidation records

Bulk Buy: any 3 courses for £200, 5 for £300 or 10 for £500, which suits a pharmacy team planning its CPD together. Not sure which course fits? Use which course do I need or book a free call.

Guides that help

This guide is part of our Professional Misconduct hub, which brings together every Probity & Ethics guide and course on the subject.

The CPD courses linked from this guide, Ethics and Ethical Standards for Pharmacists, Ensuring Confidentiality in Healthcare Practice, Ensuring Effective Communication as Healthcare Professionals and Duty of Candour in Healthcare Practice, are by Probity & Ethics, written by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, CPD certified and accredited by The CPD Certification Service (provider no. 13197) and offered since 2020.

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