Pharmacy Council wins case against student pharmacists

The Judicial Review Court has quashed the decision of the Registration of Appeals Tribunal, which last year ordered the Pharmacy Council of Jamaica to register two University of Technology (UTech) students as pharmacists.

The students failed the registration examination administered by the council twice and were ordered to do another resit.

However, they refused and took the matter to the tribunal which ruled in their favour.

The tribunal ruled last year that the students were competent and ordered the council to register them as pharmacists.

However, the council disagreed and took the matter to the Judicial Review Court to challenge the decision.

At the time when it was granted leave, the oversight body contended that the Council is the body invested with the statutory powers to regulate the training of pharmacists and it is the Council which must decide if a student is competent to be registered as a pharmacist.

In the Judicial Review Court, Justice Leighton Pusey, who heard the application, quashed the decision of the tribunal after hearing submissions from attorneys-at-law Ranfords Braham QC, Philmore Scott and Camille Scott, who represented the council.

The court granted a declaration that the pharmacy council did not meet to consider any application for registration submitted by the UTech students as they had not fulfilled the requirements for registration as prescribed by the council.

The court further said the ruling of the tribunal was of no legal effect as it was made after the expiration of its term of office.

Pharmacy students are required to obtain a 70-per cent average to be registered as a pharmacist.

However, the UTech students did not attain that pass mark and the council wrote to them to resit the exam.

The tribunal is set up under the pharmacy act to hear any person aggrieved by the refusal of the council to register them as a pharmacist