The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7205 p5
6 July 2002

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National Pharmaceutical Association (www.npa.co.uk)

NPA considers individual members

Individual pharmacist membership of the National Pharmaceutical Association is being seriously considered by its management board.

At their June meeting, members of the NPA board considered a discussion paper as part of the implementation of the association's five year strategic plan. One of the plan's objectives is to maximise NPA membership. Board members decided that, while remaining faithful to its core membership — community pharmacy owners — a pharmacist membership category would benefit members as a whole by ensuring that pharmacists receive appropriate support services to enable them to practise to a high standard, by strengthening the NPA's representational voice and by increasing revenue.

The proposal means that pharmacist members might get a range of services including:

• access to the information department and its resources
• training/continuing professional development materials
• NHS service development resources
• professional indemnity (a range of options tailored to suit particular needs)
• financial services (pensions, banking, mortgages and other loans, tax and accounting, private health insurance)
• lifestyle services (holidays, travel insurance, car purchase)

There might also be a pharmacists' forum where pharmacists could discuss issues that affect them in practice. The forum's views could help inform NPA decision making and policy.