QCPP listens: Fine-tuning required following pilot feedback

Transition to the revised QCPP Requirements will no longer occur on 1 March 2018, with pilot feedback demonstrating a need for further review and refinement of program materials prior to a national roll-out. 

It is essential the revised QCPP Requirements are relevant and meet your pharmacy business needs, providing greater flexibility for your business to innovate and grow, and adequate time allowed to ensure a high-quality QCPP program for you.

Revised implementation date of new QCPP Requirements
The revised implementation date will be announced in early 2018, with roll-out to occur on or after 1 July 2018.

How does this affect me?
If your pharmacy will undergo a QCPP assessment up until and including 30 June 2018, it will be business as usual and your pharmacy will be assessed against the current QCPP Requirements 2011. 

There is no requirement to restructure your Operations Manual to align with the revised QCPP Requirements. If your Operations Manual is working for you, keep it in its current structure. For this reason, we discourage restructuring your Operations Manual, or any other aspect of your quality management system, solely for the purposes of aligning with the new QCPP Requirements.

Feedback received from the QCPP Pilot

QCPP conducted a pilot of the revised QCPP Requirements in varied business models and locations across Australia during October 2017, with an objective to determine the effectiveness of the revised QCPP Requirements and assessment tools.
Feedback highlighted a number of positive aspects:

  • The 5 domains were more simple to understand compared to the 18 elements
  • Increased focus on pharmacy business management
  • Questions at assessment that were based on high business risk were reported to be favourable compared to previous assessments where pharmacy owners felt that a number of questions seemed to focus on less important factors.

Feedback strongly highlighted that the revised requirements are not ready for national roll-out. Feedback included:

  • QCPP Requirements were unclear and difficult to understand and therefore difficult to implement
  • Assessment questions did not always represent a reasonable expectation of all varied pharmacy business models
  • Assessments took much longer than expected (average assessment took 7 hours)
  • Pharmacy staff needed to be available for a much longer time to discuss audit questions with the assessor compared to the current assessment model.

QCPP is committed to understanding what is best for your business needs, focusing on helping your pharmacy business run smoothly. We will continue to work with you, and support you, as we reform QCPP together.