Registration and Licensure

All pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in British Columbia must register with the College in order to practise. In addition, all pharmacies in the province must acquire a licence from the College in order to operate.

The College registration process ensures that pharmacy professionals must meet the ‘entry to practice’ standards and possess the knowledge, skills and abilities to be able to provide safe pharmacy care. Registrants must also meet annual professional development and continuing education requirements to ensure ongoing competence throughout practice.

The College is responsible to maintain a register which lists registered pharmacy professionals and licensed pharmacies in BC. The College must also publicly share any registrant or pharmacy limits, conditions, suspensions or cancellations. The register and any notifications are available on the College website.

Registrants must also complete a criminal record check and carry professional liability insurance as a requirement of their registration.

Regulated Pharmacy Technicians

2011/12 marked the year that the College established a new category of registrant and registered its first group of pharmacy technicians. The transition period for existing pharmacy assistants to complete the necessary requirements to become registered with the College ends on December 31, 2015.

Regulated pharmacy technicians are directly responsible and accountable for scope of technical functions related to prescription preparation and processing.

Mandatory Criminal Record Check

The criminal record check is a requirement of the Criminal Records Review Act (CRRA) and is intended to help protect children and vulnerable adults from physical, sexual or financial abuse. All health care practitioners under the Health Professions Act (HPA) must consent to a criminal record check at least once every five years regardless of whether or not they work directly with children or vulnerable adults.

In 2013, the CRRA was updated to include fingerprinting for selected individuals as an additional verification step of a CRC.  This additional step is mandatory for those selected.  Selection is determined at the discretion of the BC Ministry of Justice and is based on characteristics such as gender and birth date.  The BC Ministry of Justice will notify registrants by mail if they are required to complete the fingerprinting verification step and it must be completed as soon as possible.

The College is not responsible for any portion of the Criminal Record Check as the BC Ministry of Justice administers all aspects. The CRC is a function of the College’s registration categories whether or not registrants interact directly with children or vulnerable adults in their daily work.

Registrants are required to consent to a criminal record check. If consent for a criminal record check is not provided or the criminal record check fails, the application would go to the Inquiry Committee for review.

Mandatory Liability Insurance

All pharmacy professionals must have professional liability insurance with the following minimum criteria:

• Minimum of $2 million coverage insuring against liability arising from error, omission or negligent act of the registrant, and
• Policy provides occurrence-based coverage or claims-made coverage with an extended reporting period of at least three years, and
• If not issued in the registrant’s name, the group policy covers the registrant as an individual.

Injection Authority

Pharmacists received the ability to become authorized to administer injections in July 2009. The Pharmacists Regulation allows for qualified and authorized pharmacists to administer a drug or substance by intradermal, intramuscular or subcutaneous injection for the prevention of disease, disorders or conditions and for the treatment of anaphylaxis once authorized.

Pharmacy students may also apply for the authority to administer injections as a result of changes to the HPA in 2013.