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	The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 269 No 7228 p846-847 14 December 2002	This page Reprint Photocopy
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Continuing professional development (CPD)

Omission of enclosures for preregistration trainees

Will retired members have to leave register?

Omission of enclosures for preregistration trainees

From Mr I. Davis

As a preregistration trainee working in the community sector for a major supermarket chain, I have been following with great interest the ongoing discussion in your letters pages regarding continuing professional development. I strongly believe that keeping abreast of current issues and practice is a key component to lifelong learning, and look forward to embracing CPD following my entry on to the register.

With The Journal of 23 November, a summary guide to medication review was sent to all community pharmacists. When my tutor asked me a question about it I had no idea what she was talking about because I had not received it. She has also received other publications that I have never seen, eg, the MeReC Bulletin. I understand that hospital pharmacists sometimes receive information specifically relevant to their sphere of practice along with their PJ.

As preregistration trainees, the very future of the profession, surely we should be given every opportunity to improve and reinforce our knowledge, and it seems to me that omission of these enclosures excludes us from valuable information relating to a wide range of issues. My tutor firmly believes I should receive all the things sent to both community and hospital pharmacists, because I may not have decided in which sector I will ultimately work, and as preregistration trainees we are expected to be knowledgeable about matters pertinent to both sectors. The other point is that if my tutor had not asked me about or shown me these enclosures, I would have been in ignorance about their existence.

I hope the Royal Pharmaceutical Society can do something about this matter in the near future, so that preregistration trainees are not left behind.

Ian Davis
Eastbourne, East Sussex

ROBERT DEWDNEY, head, education division, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:

Preregistration trainees already receive a three-part manual, four CPPE distance learning packs, two Preregistration Bulletins, the 'Medicines, ethics and practice guide' and The Pharmaceutical Journal every week. The education division is concerned about overload and believes that tutors, with trainees, should identify additional learning resources to use.

Will retired members have to leave register?

From Dr G. B. Drummond, MRPharmS

Professor Edward Shellard (PJ, 9 November, p676) is not alone in his concern. Like him, and doubtless many others, I have no intention of ever practising pharmacy.

Having been on the register since 1929 and having remained a member since 1936 (when my membership ceased to be a statutory requirement), I am dismayed at the threat of erasure. To have my name removed from the register simply because I do not participate in a totally irrelevant series of courses seems a poor reward for more than 73 years of loyalty.

What possible obstacle is there to a single register with an indication, possibly an asterisk, to denote non-practising status?

G. B. Drummond
Hull

Dr ROBERT DEWDNEY, head, education division, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:

Your correspondent should look to the Pharmacy Act 1954 as the source of relevant statutory powers with respect to registration. This is, though, by the by.

On the main issues raised in the letter, we know from the Government's response to the Kennedy report that health professionals, including pharmacists, will be subject to mandatory continuing professional development as soon as possible. What that means for retired pharmacists has yet to be worked out and consulted upon. The structure and format of the register will almost certainly receive close attention. It is also almost certainly the case that what will not emerge is prescription of "a totally irrelevant series of courses".

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