The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7211 p215-218
17 August 2002

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Letters to the Editor

The Journal

A pathetic response to the survey

From Mr C. L. Flint, MRPharmS

In your editorial of 29 June (p894), you urged "all members to consider the issues and make their views known by filling in the questionnaire either on paper or online", adding the words "whatever members' views, the changes facing the profession at this time are as great as any in its history".

In your editorial of 3 August (p146), you report that "about 4 per cent of members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society responded to the survey. ... By the end of last week [ ie, 27 July, four weeks later] 1,760 completed surveys had been returned out of a total membership of 44,000."

You go on to say: "It is a good response in market research terms. Only for surveys where there is a financial reward for filling them in or a direct benefit to an individual would responses be expected to be in excess of 5 per cent."

The difference between 4 and 5 per cent would amount to another 440 pharmacists expressing concern about the future of the profession. There is but one word to express this situation — pathetic.

It will be too late to react when a member of the Government or the establishment switches off the lights on leaving the room — alone.

C. L. Flint
Alton, Hampshire

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