From Mrs E. C. McConechy, MRPharmS
SIR,—Your report about the Council's budgetary decisions for the next year (PJ, November 18, p749) began with the following paragraph: "The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has drawn up a budget for 2001 which gives priority to meeting the opportunities presented by the National Health Service pharmacy plan for England." Unusually for mentions of the NHS plan in the pharmaceutical press, it is clear that the NHS referred to is that for England alone: it has no validity west of Offa's Dyke or north of a line from Carlisle to Berwick upon Tweed.
But the governing bodies of Scotland and Wales are producing their own individual health plans for their own individual countries. There is no mention in your report of giving similar priority to funding these countries' individual pharmaceutical bodies enabling them to meet the opportunities presented to Welsh and Scottish pharmacies by their respective health plans.
As a registered pharmacist living and working in Scotland it disturbs me greatly that my fees will apparently help fund opportunities in another country which are not open to me and that nothing of my contribution will be left to fund those opportunities which will be open to me in my own country. I would welcome reassurance that this is not the case and that proportional funds have been allocated to the Scottish and Welsh Executives of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain for this purpose.
Elizabeth C. McConechy Johnstone, Renfrewshire
Miss ANN LEWIS (Secretary and Registrar, Royal Pharmaceutical Society) replies: "Pharmacy in the future — implementing the NHS plan" was published in September and does indeed relate to England. Similar plans are expected for Scotland and Wales which, I understand, will be published in the near future. The Society's Scottish and Welsh Executives have developed very effective working relationships with their respective administrations since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. In developing the budget, provision has been made for appropriate funding for the Scottish and Welsh Executives. In recent years, the budgets for both Scotland and Wales have increased significantly to enable the Society to meet the increased demands and opportunities arising from devolution. Members can be reassured that priority has been given to the opportunities provided by the health plans in Scotland and Wales as in England.