The long-running Whitehall farce, Appointing the Chief Pharmacist, drew down its final curtain this week with the confirmation of Dr Jim Smith as chief pharmaceutical officer for England (see p844). Dr Smith will take up the reins in January, some 21 months after Mr Bryan Hartley hung up his spurs and went off to a well-deserved retirement.
The process of appointing Dr Smith has been long and tortuous. He was widely rumoured to have been offered the job early last year only to decline it because the Department of Health could not agree on a remuneration package which adequately reflected the real costs of moving from the North East to London. Now, apparently, suitable terms have been agreed.
If only the Departmental money spent on running a second round of recruitment interviews had been used to pay Dr Smith in the first place, he could have been in post for the launch of the pharmacy plan for England in September. (Here we must pay tribute to the work of the acting chief pharmacist, Mrs Jeannette Howe, under whom the plan has come to print, if not yet to fruition.)
Dr Smith will start the new year with a bulging in-tray. Top of his list of things to do are paving the way for pharmacist prescribing - legislation for which was included in the Queen's speech at the State Opening of Parliament this week (see p845) - and a review of skill mix within pharmacies. Dr Smith has a lot to be getting on with. What a pity he was not able to start on it much sooner.