From Mr K. C. T. Patel, MRPharmS
SIR,—For the past few years the nursing profession seems to have surpassed ours in getting maximum sympathy and support, not only from the general public, but from our own paymaster, the Government. With a united voice the various factions within the nursing profession have managed to roll out nurse prescribing and NHS Direct and have succeeded in being recognised as key players within the health care sectors. In the same period our distinguished profession — with constant squabbling among ourselves — has managed to achieve nothing. The hospital pharmacists are grossly underpaid within the National Health Service and on the community front, with the ever-shrinking margins in NHS dispensing, the situation is not any better. If there is one lesson we need to learn from the nursing profession then it is to speak with one voice and have one common goal. I sit on three pharmacy bodies, namely, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the National Pharmaceutical Association and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, and, quite frankly, I find it amazing that there is very little dialogue between all three of them, along with the Company Chemists Association, when it comes to pharmacist prescribing, let alone the broader issues relating to "Pharmacy in the future: implementation of the NHS plan".
The future success of the pharmacy profession will never emulate that of the nurses unless our own bodies learn to co-operate on issues of common interest. It is time to put away our differences. Let us start with a clean slate with mutual trust and respect for each other. Let us start working together to achieve our goal of being the most respected health care profession in Britain.
Kirit Patel Thornton Heath, Surrey