A pharmacist is fit to practice when he can demonstrate the skills, knowledge, character and health required to do his job safely and effectively.
The Pharmacy Council describes fitness to practice as a person’s suitability to be on the register without restrictions. In practical terms, this means: maintaining appropriate standards of competence, ensuring that one is of good health and good standing, and that one is adhering to the principles set in the Code Practice and various standards, guidance and advice.
To be fit for practice the pharmacist must be able to integrate at all times his theoretical knowledge of the core pharmaceutical subjects, learnings from past experiences, legal and statutory requirements, patient’s knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and perceptions as well as social determinants such as costs and accessibility.
The community as well as fellow health professionals place a lot of confidence in the proficiency and the integrity of the pharmacist and the latter is expected to respond to and to justify that confidence by offering the best possible service. The monopoly enjoyed by the pharmacist in relation to the sales of medicine is a privilege granted by virtue of his professional qualifications but one that is earned and deserved only through renewed competence and dedication