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A superintendent pharmacist for two online pharmacies has been suspended for six months by the General Pharmaceutical Council after operating both businesses without appropriate insurance in place for lengthy periods and making false declarations.

A fitness-to-practise committee heard Babak Gholamhosseini failed to ensure Haoma Pharmacy/My Private Pharmacist, based in Epsom, Surrey, held insurance between August 19, 2020 and July 15, 2021.

The committee also heard he submitted a false declaration to the GPhC on February 16, 2021 claiming he had indemnity or insurance arrangements in place for services provided by the pharmacy before falsely stating on July 30, 2021 that he personally had indemnity insurance “through a personal arrangement or through his employer”.

Gholamhosseini dispensed about 93 prescription-only medicines without insurance between February 18, 2021 and June 14, 2022.

He failed to ensure appropriate indemnity insurance was in place for another online pharmacy, My Private Pharmacist Suit 421, based in Wimbledon, between June 15, 2021 and June 14, 2022.

On May 20, 2021, he declared on his GPhC premises registration application form that he had arranged professional indemnity and public liabilities insurance as of “day one”. Both pharmacies are owned by Haoma Pharma Limited of which the Gholamhosseini is a director.

According to article 32 of The Pharmacy Order 2010, registrants must have “adequate and appropriate indemnity arrangement that provides cover in relation to that registrant in respect of liabilities which may be incurred in practising as a pharmacist”.

Claimed he arranged professional indemnity

During a GPhC inspection of My Private Pharmacist Suit 421 on June 13, 2022, Gholamhosseini told the inspector there had been no indemnity insurance in place since it opened in July 2021.

Two months earlier in May 2021, he submitted an application to register My Private Pharmacist Suit 421 as a new pharmacy premises and claimed he had arranged professional indemnity and public liabilities insurance cover for up to £10 million from the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

However, Gholamhosseini suspended all services provided by My Private Pharmacist Suit 421 before finally obtaining NPA insurance on June 15, 2022.

He made an application to register Haoma Pharmacy on May 14, 2020, with the intention of opening in July that year, and again claimed insurance cover for up to 10 million from the NPA had been arranged.

The committee heard that at the time of his application, he had secured the insurance which had been in place since May 1, 2020. Haoma Pharmacy was registered on June 15, 2020.

In August that year, Gholamhosseini emailed the GPhC to ask that the name of the premises be amended to My Private Pharmacist Pharmacy.

He cancelled his NPA membership, including the indemnity insurance, for Haoma Pharmacy on August 19, 2020 and on July 15, 2021, applied to the GPhC to voluntarily remove it from the register. Between August 19, 2020 and July 15, 2021, Gholamhosseini issued three private prescriptions to a family member and a close friend. Haoma Pharmacy closed some time in July 2021.

On May 21, 2021, Haoma Pharma Limited applied to register My Private Pharmacist Suit 421, which was approved on July 15, 2021. However, the hearing was told that no indemnity insurance policy was in place for the pharmacy leading up to its inspection on June 13, 2022. Gholamhosseini finally secured NPA insurance on June 16, 2022 having told the GPhC in July 2021 that he had indemnity arrangements in place.

About 90 prescription medicines during that period

His personal professional indemnity insurance expired on January 31, 2021 and he renewed it in July 2022.

A GPhC investigation found the “prescription book” for My Private Pharmacist Suit 421 contained 102 prescriptions “for several types of medication” from July 1, 2021 to June 15, 2022. Gholamhosseini supplied about 90 prescription medicines during that period “under the auspices” of My Private Pharmacist Suit 421.

When the GPhC contacted him with their concerns, he said the pharmacy was “a new start-up” and “not fully operational” from the date of its registration and the inspection.

On February 5 this year, he claimed he had not had indemnity insurance in place for Haoma Pharmacy between August 19, 2020 and July 15, 2021 because the pharmacy “had not been fully operational” and due to “personal challenges”.

The GPhC ruled Gholamhosseini breached three standards covering pharmacy professionals providing person-centred care, using their professional judgement and behaving in a professional manner.

Suspending him for six months, the committee said it was “satisfied that a reasonable and well-informed member of the public or the profession would be satisfied this was a proportionate response to (his) conduct”.