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Reporting concerns and whistleblowing

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Reporting concerns and whistleblowing

Pharmacy professionals have an obligation to whistleblow about potential wrongdoing or malpractice. Joanne Taylor asks where pharmacy technicians fit into this

All pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have an obligation to report concerns (whistleblow) as part of their professional standards. Whistleblowing is defined as “Raising a concern about conduct and procedures which might be dangerous, illegal, fraudulent or negligent”. The concern may fall into the category of possible wrongdoing, corruption, or malpractice and dangerous activities happening in the workplace currently, in the past or that could happen in the future and which affect or could affect patients, service users, members of the public or other members of staff. 

This means that if you have a genuine concern that there are reasonable grounds for believing that someone has acted in this way then the concern should be raised with the appropriate person within your company. It’s always better to raise concerns early on rather than wait to obtain absolute proof, as any delay may cause further harm. Ignoring whistleblowing can lead to fines, a serious patient safety incident and investigation by a professional body or harm to the company’s reputation.

A named person or people will be detailed within your company whistleblowing policy. Your pharmacy manager may also be able to help you, if suitable, and they should escalate the information to the appropriate person so that it can be dealt with as necessary. Issues such as grievances at work – a personal complaint about an individual’s own employment situation – are not included in the whistleblowing policy and your employer will have provided you with information on other relevant policies which include these issues.

Once you have raised a concern, a confidential interview will be arranged to discuss it. It is a good idea to have any evidence to hand. If there is more than one colleague with the same concern, then all colleagues should report the concern individually, if possible. Once the confidential interview has taken place, relevant feedback should be provided to you, unless disciplinary action has been taken against a person. 

Most whistleblowing concerns can be resolved within the pharmacy but if the matter cannot be resolved or the outcome is unsatisfactory then it can be raised to external organisations. These include the General Pharmaceutical Council, Public Concern at Work, a local primary care organisation, NHS fraud unit, Health and Safety Executive, Local Environment Agency, Local Trading Standards Office, the police or a trade union. 

If you aren’t happy about a situation at work, make sure you share your concerns with somebody you can trust and then report as necessary. Being a professional is about taking your responsibilities seriously and if something isn’t right, then do what you need to do. The whistleblowing policy is there to protect you.

Joanne is a registered pharmacy technician and ACPT, and is professional standards lead at Vittoria Healthcare. She is national secretary for the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK), and is a member of the Medicines Rebalancing Programme Board at the Department of Health as well as TM’s editorial advisory panel.

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