The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7201 p821-822
8 June 2002

Society summary

Eighteen branches now have active websites

Following the launch of the first six Royal Pharmaceutical Society branch websites in March (PJ, 23 March, p411), the number of branch websites has risen to 18.

All the branch sites can be reached by clicking on the "branches and regions" link from the "About the Society" section of the Society's website.

The original six branch sites (Moray and Banff, Bradford, Harrow and Hillingdon, Morgannwg, Edinburgh and Lothians and Sefton) have been joined by sites for Birmingham, Bristol, Clwyd, Hull, Ipswich, Leeds, North Hampshire, Northern Scottish, Slough, Stockport, Torbay and West Surrey. A further 16 branches and two regional committees are in the process of developing websites and another 30 or so have expressed an interest and been provided with the necessary information and access facilities.

The sites are maintained by branch members, and all content is the responsibility of the branch concerned. The Society has given the branches considerable freedom to use their sites as they wish, with no rigid rules about content or design.

All the sites give details of meetings and information about the branch committee, though the amount of information offered varies from branch to branch. Some have a home page with general information about the branch, some have a news section and some provide links to local websites of interest to pharmacists. Some also give information about local pharmacy development groups and Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education courses (or their equivalent in Wales or Scotland).

An innovation on the Clwyd site is the inclusion of a locally-produced pharmacy career pack that can be viewed on-screen or downloaded as a 16-page document in PDF format. Also available for download are branch newsletters going back over the past six years. The site also has a search facility.

Among the other newer sites, Bristol offers speakers' notes from past meetings, where available. Its news pages give information about a medicines management trial at Southmead Hospital and an appeal for participants for a pilot project on a pharmacist-led prescribing support initiative.

The Ipswich site provides a brief report of every branch meeting held in the 2001–02 season, plus a downloadable newsletter.

Other branches or regions wishing to have their own space on the Society's website should e-mail the website editor, Mary Snell, at msnell@rpsgb.org.uk. Each branch will need someone with word processing skills, an internet connection and FTP (file transfer protocol) software for loading files on to the site. Special web editing software is not needed, but may be used.