The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7229 p889
21/28 December 2002

Society summary

From the Secretary and Registrar: All I want for Christmas

As I reflect on a year in which the Council has already made some significant decisions for the future and no one appears to have gained much popularity in the process, I wonder why the most vociferous contributors to the letters pages of The Pharmaceutical Journal do not seem to consider that, although the past has been good, the future could be even better. Does it reflect a lack of confidence or a lack of vision or both — or am I just a "cock-eyed optimist"?

Much of the emphasis during the past year has been about developing a regulatory framework that will provide the profession with appropriate powers to meet the needs of today and the reasonably foreseeable future.

Equally important will be the framework to support the Society's wider role as a professional body. We can justly be proud of our heritage — indeed, we must cherish and learn from it — but we should not be enslaved by it, nor should we be afraid to move forward or fear the future. The Society's Supplemental Charter, which provides the current framework, is now almost 50 years old, written before most of today's pharmacists began their practice. Some of its language is outmoded, as is the narrow scientific basis on which it is predicated. Many pharmacists today might like to see the originating frameworks that define their profession reflect current practice and the science that underpins it.

Confident

Pharmacists should be confident in their profession and in its future. Their knowledge and skills are in demand now as never before. Their position in public esteem rides high, even if public understanding of their contribution to health care could be greater. Roles unheard of 10 years ago are now the accepted norm, with new responsibilities for prescribing just months away.

It is true that there are challenges, significant for some, but the challenge is not to pharmacy itself but to the way that it is practised. I have no illusions about the fundamental nature of those challenges, particularly in community pharmacy but also in hospital practice, in industry, in academia and for emerging roles in primary care.

Over the years pharmacy has adapted well to change. Perhaps it is that unique mix of professionalism and business that attracts the entrepreneur to community pharmacy; perhaps it is the lack of social distance between pharmacist and client, customer or patient; perhaps it is the very nature of what we do and where we do it.

One of the essential ingredients of a profession is the direct and fiduciary relationship with its clients. We can be confident in claiming this as a strength; pharmacists do have the trust and confidence of people who seek service and advice. Why then are we so unwilling to express confidence in ourselves?

Our profession has successfully integrated and developed the roles of regulatory body and professional society for nearly 70 years. We can be confident in seeking changes to our regulatory function, which most agree are necessary and which will stand the profession in good stead now and in future. We can be equally confident in seeking a sound basis for our professional responsibilities.

Vision

Some of the critics of change would seek to hold on to what we have, but how many of them have described the vision of what might be? We do not need to fear our shadow, or to worry about disturbing the past if we seek change. We should be confident about claiming what we need for the future.

The pharmacist is not just a curer of winter ills, not just an expert adviser for all seasons, not just a solace to the lonely and deprived — not even just the last port of call for that forgotten present! The pharmacist is for the future.

The knowledge and ability of our young graduates and recently registered pharmacists is stunning. We owe it to them to develop a professional and regulatory framework with the next 50 years in mind which will enable them to make a real contribution to the public good.

If that means a new legal framework for our regulatory process, it also means a complementary framework to secure professional leadership and development, to promote scholarship, to uphold and cherish our heritage and to provide support in times of real need. A new Charter perhaps?

Ah well, perhaps Santa will bring me a tin hat and a big teddy bear!