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The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 264 No 7086 p365
March 4, 2000 The Society

Society holds first public debate

The first of a possible series of public debates organised by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society took place on February 28 in Lambeth, London.
Chaired by the Society's President, Mrs Christine Glover, the debate was organised as part of a programme of events being drawn up by the Society's Science Committee with the aim of increasing the profile of the science aspect of pharmacy.
A panel of three speakers gave personal views on "postcode care" and discussed the motion that "treatment had become a national lottery where winning and losing can be a matter of life or death".
Mrs Debbie Beeley, a nurse who has multiple sclerosis, spoke about her experiences as a patient seeking treatment with b-interferon.
Mr Peter Cardy (chief executive, Multiple Sclerosis Society) said that he believed rationing was necessary but that the resources available to the National Health Service should be made available to all in an equitable way.

Mrs Beeley
Mrs Beeley listens as Dr Zimmern addresses the meeting

Dr Ron Zimmern (former director of public health, Cambridge health authority) spoke about the moral and ethical dilemmas that resulted from the need to ration. He said that health authorities had to make judgments on how money was spent and added that the "travesty of public health is the pretence that the NHS can continue to be comprehensive without significant increase in resources".
In the open discussion that followed, the panel members were asked about solutions to the problems of postcode prescribing. Dr Zimmern responded by saying that "there are no right answers, but there are right processes". Mr Cardy added that there was a need for public support and that it was necessary to promote public debate to decide what the NHS was there to do and what it could not do.