A merger between the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and the National Pharmaceutical Association - which has been the subject of unpublicised discussion in recent months - is a superficially attractive proposition. A combined organisation would be bigger and for that reason could be more powerful. Pharmacy contractors - who have seen the gross margin on National Health dispensing fall inexorably year on year for the past decade or more - could do with some power being exerted on their behalf.
But a merger would not bring unalloyed benefit. The body which has as its primary objective looking after the interests of independent community pharmacies, namely, the National Pharmaceutical Association, would find its focus much more widely spread. And the key role of negotiating terms and conditions of service would no longer be the preserve of an independent body dedicated to the purpose.
In any event, this discussion is now somewhat academic, since the PSNC has voted overwhelmingly against combining the two bodies, which would seem to us to be an end of the matter, even though the NPA has yet to give a decision (see p938). And, The Journal understands, it was the fears of the independents that caused the proposal to be defeated. They felt that their interests would not get the weight that they deserved.
Rather than seek mergers, the PSNC plans now to streamline its procedures and to develop a new balance between office and chair, an area which is often the cause of difficulty.