GPhC Prescribing Course for Pharmacist Prescribers

Written and reviewed by Dr Shehzad Iqbal, MBBS, MRCS, MRCGP, Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Law and Ethics · Updated 8 November 2026

Prescribing concerns a pharmacist prescriber can face

The GPhC’s guidance for pharmacist prescribers (updated April 2025) says not following it “could result in the registration of the pharmacist prescriber being at risk”. The concerns it points to include:

• prescribing outside “the limits of their knowledge, skills and area of competence”;
• deciding without enough information about the person’s health, or opening their records without consent;
• prescribing for yourself or someone close to you;
• prescribing and supplying the same item without recording why;
• remote prescribing of high-risk medicines from an online questionnaire alone;
• letting incentives or targets shape the decision.

What the GPhC guidance for pharmacist prescribers says

The guidance is applied alongside the standards for pharmacy professionals, and prescribers “must be able to justify their decisions”. Its main points:

• Section 1: you are “responsible and accountable” for your decisions, prescribe only medicines you know to be safe and effective for the condition, and give safety-netting advice;
• Section 2: keep the competencies of your role, and refer the person if you are not competent to prescribe;
• Section 3.1: ask for consent to access the person’s medical records;
• Section 4.1: do not prescribe for yourself or anyone with whom you have a close personal relationship, except where justified and recorded;
• Section 4.2: keep prescribing separate from supply, and record the reasons where both happen together;
• Section 4.4: check identity when prescribing at a distance, and for weight management medicines independently verify the person’s weight, height or body mass index.

Standards 4 and 5 apply here too: work within the limits of your knowledge, and manage targets so the care reflects the person’s needs.

Where the course counts in a GPhC prescribing case

If the Registrar refers the case, the Investigating Committee meets in private and invites your written response. It can take no action, give advice, issue a warning, agree undertakings if you accept that your fitness to practise is affected, or refer the case to the Fitness to Practise Committee, which can also impose conditions. The GPhC’s hearings guidance says undertakings may include a commitment to supervision (paragraph 4.9). Where a prescriber is a serious risk to patient safety, the GPhC can apply for an interim order, with conditions such as a workplace supervisor. A prescribing course and a reflection that names the section of the guidance you did not meet are evidence for each of these steps.

What the prescribing course covers

Eight sections and 17 lessons, ending in an assessment: prescribing responsibility; the regulators’ prescribing guidance; safe prescribing, including for yourself, family or friends; errors and accountability; higher-risk medicines and patient-centred prescribing; responding to a concern; and a personal development plan that records the change.

When a different course fits better

If the concern is that your records of a consultation do not show your reasoning, Professionalism in Documentation for Healthcare Professionals answers it; our guide to a record-keeping course explains why. If the concern is about clinical knowledge, take Ensuring Clinical Competence and Patient Safety.

Counting it as CPD for your prescriber annotation

GPhC revalidation asks each year for four CPD records, a peer discussion and a reflective account, and “at least one” of the six records must reflect on any annotation or specialist role you hold. The revalidation FAQs say a planned CPD entry gives an independent prescriber the chance to show how they have improved their prescribing practice. This course fits that record. The entry itself is explained in our guide to GPhC CPD courses.

Our prescribing course for pharmacist prescribers, for a concern and for CPD

Courses that sit beside it

Bulk Buy covers the £79 courses: 3 for £200, 5 for £300, 10 for £500. Not sure what to take? Book a free 15-minute call or see which course do I need.

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, Prescribing Guidance and Standards for Healthcare Professionals, Professionalism in Documentation for Healthcare Professionals, Ensuring Clinical Competence and Patient Safety as Healthcare Professionals and Module on Insight, 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.

Questions and answers