At the start of the pandemic in 2020, the UK Government introduced emergency legislation which allowed Pharmacists in Northern Ireland to support the response to the Covid-19 pandemic by joining our Covid-19 Temporary Register. Following a request from the Minister for Health in Northern Ireland, we stopped accepting new applicants onto the Covid-19 Temporary Register in March 2022.
Since then, we have been working with the Department of Health to prepare for the Covid-19 Temporary Register to close this month, by encouraging people to join the permanent register. However, on Thursday 22 September, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in England made a statement setting out plans to keep equivalent temporary registers open in England for a further two years. The Minister for Health in Northern Ireland made a similar decision for the Temporary Register for pharmacists in Northern Ireland on 30 September 2022. This means the Covid-19 Temporary Register will be open beyond 30 September 2022.
Pharmacists who remain on the Covid-19 Temporary Register will be able to practise in Northern Ireland following this extension.
Pharmacists who wish to be removed from the Covid -19 Temporary Register should contact the Registration Department of the Pharmaceutical Society NI.
We are now considering carefully how we will keep the Covid-19 Temporary Register open safely for the next two years and will provide updates accordingly.
30 September 2022
Notes to editors
The Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland is the regulatory body for pharmacists in Northern Ireland. Our primary purpose is to ensure practising pharmacists in Northern Ireland are fit to practise, keep their skills and knowledge up to date and deliver high quality safe care to patients.
For further information, please contact Mark Neale at the Pharmaceutical Society NI on 028 9026 7933 or mark.neale@psni.org.uk