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A pharmacist who checked and approved prescriptions using WhatsApp while they were away from the pharmacy has been warned by the General Pharmaceutical Council.

The regulator’s fitness-to-practise committee heard Kelly Osamudiamen Osadolor was not physically at Swindon Pharmacy, where she was employed as the responsible pharmacist, when staff sent her photo messages on the platform of prescriptions and medication.

According to the committee’s report on the hearing, she “replied with a thumbs-up emoji or response to that effect to confirm that staff could supply the medication”.

Ms Osadolor did this while she was away from the pharmacy for six days across October 2022 and March, May and June 2023 when the pharmacy remained open despite not having a pharmacist on the premises.

The committee also heard prescription medicine was prepared and given out by unqualified staff.

On the first day she was away from the pharmacy, October 19, 2022, the committee said she was “aware there was no responsible pharmacist” there and was away from the pharmacy for about eight hours without arranging for it to close or stop dispensing.

Describing her use of WhatsApp to check prescriptions and absence from the pharmacy as “unacceptable and unprofessional”, the committee said her “actions brought the profession of pharmacy into disrepute and breached fundamental tenets of the pharmacy profession”.

However, it said Ms Osadolor had “remediated” her “misconduct” and concluded she does “not pose an ongoing risk to the public” and her fitness to practise was not impaired. The warning will be published on the register for 12 months.