Recently, a 2-phased plan was announced in the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) papers, highlighting that up to five-thousand and eight-hundred pharmacy professionals could be added to the register if a state of emergency arises.

In the 1st phase, pharmacy technicians and pharmacist registrants, who voluntarily departed, would be re-registered; however, the list would extend during the 2nd phase to include former registrants who had been dismissed because their registration was not renewed. However, the regulator emphasised that it's not in a position to force people to return to work.

“GPhC plans to redeploy pharmacists if the government declares a COVID-19 emergency.“

If staff are still required, the GPhC has stated that it will register people who have a significant amount of required skills and knowledge.

The GPhC papers stated: “As an illustration of the potential numbers, phase 1 of our proposed approach would mean approximately two thousand and seven-hundred pharmacists and one-thousand and three-hundred pharmacy technicians would become eligible to practise if recent experience was defined as 2 years. Phase 2 would add a further nine-hundred pharmacists and nine-hundred pharmacy technicians using the same timeframe.”