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The GPhC has said the number of complaints it is receiving from the public is “unsustainable and wholly disproportionate” as it pledged to set up an independent service to handle “low level” complaints. 

In papers published ahead of its July 17 council meeting, the GPhC revealed it received a record-breaking 7,000 complaints in 2024-25, with its team fielding more concerns each month than the Nursing and Midwifery Council – which has 824,000 registrants compared to the GPhC’s 93,000.

To try and ease these pressures, the GPhC said it will pilot an independent complaints handling service.

“The pharmacy sector is in the minority of healthcare providers in that it has no alternative resolution service for general complaints,” it said.

Commenting on the expense of running a separate service, the regulator said: “This project will require additional investment and will not immediately produce an immediate realisable financial benefit, but it should be considered a longer-term investment towards an improvement in the quality of service provided to registrants and the public and enable a reallocation of resource to concerns that raise serious regulatory concerns.”

The regulator said its legacy caseload is its “biggest challenge and highest priority,” with 31 cases awaiting a hearing data and 47 cases stuck at an earlier stage. This will have a negative impact “for many more months to come,” it said.

The regulator received 46 allegations of illegal practice in 2024-25, with most of these closed during the triage or investigation stages and a further seven are still being investigated. 

And 16 per cent of live investigations concern the online pharmacy sector, down from a peak of 34 per cent in 2022-23. However, online prescribing still accounts for just under 30 per cent of cases currently awaiting a fitness to practise hearing.

Commenting on emerging themes, the GPhC said it is now seeing an increase in cases that relate to “the improper and inappropriate use of the electronic prescription service” as well as the provision of weight loss medicines.