The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7191 p449
30 March 2002

Society summary

Number of pharmacists on register rises by only 137 in 2001

The report of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Registrar for 2001 shows an increase of 137 in the total number of persons on the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists, compared with an increase of 1,062 in the previous year.

The total membership at the end of the year was 44,564, a rise of 0.3 per cent on the previous year-end total of 44,427. The average annual increase over the past 10 years has been 624.

The main reason for the small size of the increase is that the number of pharmacy graduates completing their preregistration year in 2001 was much lower than normal as a consequence of the lengthening of the pharmacy degree course in England and Wales.

The number of pharmacy premises at the end of the year was 12,223 — 35 fewer than at the beginning of the year. This compares with a decrease of 53 during 1999.

The Registrar's report is set below, with the 2000 figures given for comparison.