The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7213 p300
31 August 2002

Society summary

Society seeks more views on regulation of support staff

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is seeking to widen its consultation (PDF 60K) on the regulation of pharmacy support staff (PJ, 22 June, p888). Although pleased with the response already received from pharmacists and stakeholder organisations, the Society wants to stimulate more views from support staff themselves.

The Society hopes that pharmacists will draw the consultation paper to the attention of support staff. The consultation paper can be downloaded as a PDF file from the Society's website (PDF 25K).

The Society must receive submissions by the end of September if they are to influence the proposals that are being put together by a steering group for presentation to the Society's Council at its October meeting.

The Society says that the development of proposals for regulating support staff is part of its process of regulatory reform. The Government has indicated that it expects all health care workers to be regulated in the future, and the Society's Council believes that it is in the profession's best interests for all members of the pharmacy team to be regulated under one umbrella. The Health Act 1999 allows professional bodies such as the Society to regulate professional support staff without the need for primary legislation.

All feedback from the consultation should be sent to Janet Flint, Practice Pharmacist, Practice Division, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, 1 Lambeth high Street, London SE1 7JN (fax 020 7572 2501; e-mail jflint@rpsgb.org.uk).