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Pharmacy Internship Training Programme (for locally trained pharmacy graduates)

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GUIDELINES ON PHARMACY INTERNSHIP TRAINING PROGRAMME

A. Internship Training Requirement for Local Pharmacy Graduates

1.According to the training requirement of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (“the Board”), graduates of local accredited Bachelor of Pharmacy (“BPharm”) Programmes offered by The University of Hong Kong (“HKU”) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (“CUHK”) are required to undergo Board-approved training in Hong Kong for one year (inclusive of a holiday entitlement of not more than four weeks).

2.The training programme should be conducted at the Board-accredited training sites under the supervision of accredited preceptors/tutors and cover various aspects on patient counselling, ordering of drugs and dispensing. The schedule of the Board-approved training should include:
  1. six months’ basic training in a hospital; and
  2. six months’ specialty training, continuously or in two blocks of three months each, in a hospital, a public clinic, a community pharmacy, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company or a pharmaceutical wholesale company.
3.Local pharmacy graduates are required to submit an application for the Board’s approval to undergo pharmacy internship training before its commencement. In addition, prior approval should be obtained from the Board in respect of any changes to the approved internship training programme, including changes to training institutions, training period, address of the training sites and/or preceptors/tutors. In this regard, pharmacy interns are required to submit relevant applications seeking the Board’s prior approval by completing the prescribed application form (Appendix I)(English only) via the respective training institutions, with full justification and supporting documents provided, at least three weeks before commencement of the changes.

4.For applications which fail to meet the proposed submission deadline, pharmacy interns should provide full justifications for the non-compliance to avoid possible interruption to the internship training. Any non-compliance may lead to consequences as specified in Part D below. Each case will be considered on its own merits.

B. Accreditation of Pharmacy Internship Training Institution and Preceptors/Tutors

5.To be qualified as a Board-accredited training site for conducting the internship training programme, an institution should submit an application for accreditation as a pharmacy internship training institution and accreditation of its preceptors/tutors to the Board for approval. The application should include a proposed pharmacy internship training programme (“PITP”), which covers areas of training and assessment details of the programme to facilitate the Board’s assessment. A set of guidelines for accredited pharmacy internship training institutions with skeleton training guidelines, tutor’s assessment form, intern’s assessment form and intern’s checklist for each of the following four sectors are at Annexes 1 to 4 (English only) respectively:
  1. Hospitals (including public clinics) (Annex 1);
  2. Community pharmacies (Annex 2);
  3. Pharmaceutical manufacturing companies (Annex 3); and
  4. Pharmaceutical wholesale companies (Annex 4).
6.If there are more than one training site under the accredited training institution, application should be submitted to the Postgraduate Pharmacy Training and Development Committee (“PPTDC”) of the Board for consideration on a case-by-case basis.

7.Preceptors/tutors under the accredited training institution should be accredited by the Board. To be eligible being a preceptor/tutor, the person should:
  1. be a registered pharmacist in Hong Kong for an aggregate period of no less than three years and has been working in the relevant sector that the internship training will take place for an aggregate period of no less than three years;
  2. work full-time in the training site such that the intern can have regular and frequent contact to ensure quality of supervision and training; and
  3. have no disciplinary action or criminal record in the past three years.
8.To facilitate the Board to maintain up-to-date registers of pharmacy internship training institutions and preceptors/tutors, accredited training institutions should inform the PPTDC of any deletions/additions/changes which have to be made to the abovesaid registers (e.g. deletion of preceptors/tutors owing to resignation, addition/deletion of training sites or change of address). In this regard, accredited training institutions are required to submit relevant applications seeking the Board’s prior approval by completing the prescribed application form (Appendix II)(English only), with full justification and supporting documents provided, at least three weeks before commencement of the changes.

9.For applications which fail to meet the proposed submission deadline, accredited training institutions should provide full justifications for the non-compliance to avoid possible interruption to the internship training. Any non-compliance may lead to consequences as specified in Part D below. Each case will be considered on its own merits.

C. Assessment of Performance of Local Pharmacy Interns

10.The performance of pharmacy interns during the PITP will be assessed according to the grading system and criteria as prescribed in the performance appraisal forms of the relevant sector. Appraisals should be completed by the preceptors/tutors on a quarterly basis. Therefore, a total of four appraisals covering the one-year internship training should be completed for each pharmacy intern and the appraisals would be submitted to the PPTDC for consideration. Besides, the pharmacy interns are required to complete the training checklist and assessment form in respect of the PITP.

11.Pharmacy interns who have successfully completed their internship training and obtained an overall grading of “Effective” or above in all of the four quarterly appraisals will be eligible for registration. On the other hand, cases of pharmacy interns who do not perform satisfactorily, such as obtaining an overall grading of “Marginal” or below in any of the four quarterly appraisals, or taking excessive sick leave during the internship training, will be brought up to the Board for consideration. The pharmacy interns concerned may be required to perform make-up training or any other actions as decided by the Board. If make-up training is required, it should take place in the same pharmaceutical sector in which the pharmacy intern has been trained and the make-up training will be calculated in weeks. Each case will be considered on individual basis.

D. Interruption and Resumption of Pharmacy Internship Training

12.In order to maintain coherence and continuity of the pharmacy intern training, if the preceptor/tutor assigned to the pharmacy intern leaves or is transferred out of the training institution/site during the quarterly training module i.e. the three-month training block, the pharmacy intern will have to start over with that particular quarterly module. Exceptional cases will be considered on their own merits.

13.In the event that the training site of an accredited training institution is relocated or under renovation, the intern will be allowed to change his/her training site if he/she is under the supervision of the same accredited preceptor at the new training site within the quarterly training module i.e. the three-month training block. Exceptional cases will be considered on their own merits.

E. Time Limit for Satisfactory Completion of Pharmacy Internship Training Programme

14.Local pharmacy graduates are required to satisfactorily complete the pharmacy internship training prior to registration as pharmacists in Hong Kong within four years from the official date of graduation, i.e. the congregation date in around mid November every year. The four-year time limit will start to be adopted for applying to first-year students admitted to the local accredited BPharm programmes in the academic year 2021/22 onwards. Exceptional cases will be considered on their own merits upon application.

Pharmacy and Poisons Board of Hong Kong
(Last updated in November 2022)

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