The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7180 p15-21
5/12 January 2002

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  Community pharmacy
  Remuneration
  The Profession
  Medication errors
  Patent expiries
  Drug misuse
  Pharmacy abroad
  CPD
  Isotretinoin
  Tritace
  Specialisation
  Research assessment
  Statutory Committee
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  The Society
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  Christmas miscellany

Letters to the Editor

CPD

Important not to be complacent

From Mr F. A. Yusuf, MRPharmS

In order for continuing professional development to prosper pharmacists, particularly in retail pharmacy, have to be able to work reasonable (amenable) hours. Many pharmacists in this area are doing nine, quite often 10 or 11, hours a day that usually excludes a lunch hour, tea breaks or both. If they then undertake CPD during the evening, it could lead to possible dire consequences for patients at the pharmacy the next day.

Mr Farban (PJ, 27 October 2001, p613) states that there are internal and external forces driving CPD. The internal pressure in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society comes from the severe adverse publicity in recent years of the medical profession, eg, the Bristol babies heart surgery scandal and the Shipman murders. Why is it that when doctors sneeze, pharmacists catch a cold?

The external pressure is largely driven again by the concern at the incompetence of some doctors, with the result that the Department of Health set up a regulatory framework in August to oversee health professionals, including pharmacists.

On the flip side of the coin CPD could be used by pharmacists not of professional bent to hoodwink both the Society and the public of competence by swotting at CPD courses, then returning to their errant ways in practice. I really think that after four or five years of training that academics would have spotted a potential incompetent.

It is important, however, not to be complacent and I would encourage pharmacists to increase or refresh their knowledge privately or, if time is against them, at least to have reference sources at hand in the workplace.

When I was an undergraduate in the 1980s I was told that after graduation I would have a job for life and that one of the most important characteristics of a pharmacist was compassion, especially for the patient. It is a commonly held perception among the membership that the Society appears to lack some compassion for its own members.

Faiz Ahmed Yusuf
London E17

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