Producing a strategy for future pharmacy practice is vital, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Secretary and Registrar, Miss Ann Lewis, told women pharmacists at a lunch meeting during the World Pharmacy Congress.
Miss Lewis said that she was an admirer of the management guru Charles Handy, who had said: "We don't have to wait for the future: we can shape it." But, whatever country one practised in, whatever the circumstances of practice, shaping pharmacy's future would require the formulation of a strategy, Miss Lewis said.
Although history had shown that one could shape the future, to do so one had to develop leaders with vision and determination. Miss Lewis said that she had a great respect for the young pharmacists of today, who were not fazed by uncertainty but accepted it and believed that the future would be what they made it.
These were challenging time for all professions, Miss Lewis said, but they were also times of great opportunity. The quality of leadership would be put to the test, but pharmacists were well equipped to meet the challenge and shape their own future.
Miss Lewis was speaking at the 11th annual Women in Pharmacy lunch. Each year, a woman who has made her mark in the profession is invited to address the lunch meeting. The 10 previous speakers include one other British pharmacist, Mrs Marion Rawlings, who, like Miss Lewis, has served as President of the Society.
During her address, Miss Lewis outlined her own background in pharmacy. After registering 34 years ago, she had had early experience in community practice followed by many years in hospital pharmacy. During that time, hospital pharmacy had advanced in its practice and influence, particularly in areas such as formulary management and advice, and those developments were now making a transition into primary care.
Her next transition had been to academia and continuing education for community pharmacists. Community practice too had developed in recent years in response to the twin forces of professional and commercial development. During her time there, the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education had developed programmes designed to build community pharmacists' confidence and support decision making in their expanding role.
Commenting on her most recent transition, "from pharmacy politics to professional regulation", Miss Lewis said that there was an old adage that "an old poacher makes the best gamekeeper". She hoped it would prove true in her case.