The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7236 p231
15 February 2003

This page
Reprint
Photocopy

PDF* 90K

  OFT report
  Supermarket pharmacy
  PSNC
  Community pharmacy
  Practice pharmacists
  Dispensing
  Hospital pharmacy
  Insulin labelling
  Emergency boxes
  Advertising
  Locum pay
  Medication errors
  The Profession
  The Society
  Council election

Letters to the Editor

Council election

Reports, not promises, please

From Mr P. Jenkins, FRPharmS

Before each Royal Pharmaceutical Society Council election, we should be checking the record of Council members who want to stand again.

We could ask for their attendance records. We could ask about the positions they have taken on the main issues discussed during the time of their membership. We could try to find out how they have been able to pursue any promises they made in their election statement. These are all difficult but the last may be the most difficult. However, it would be the most illuminating, since election promises can backfire.

For example, the man who called himself H'Angus when he dressed himself up as a monkey to be the mascot for Hartlepool United Football Club, promised to give schoolchildren in the area a free banana every day if he were elected mayor. He got that job and the promise must have helped. However he found he could not fulfill his pledge because it would have cost around £400,000 in a full year.

I do not suggest that would-be members of Council offer blatant bribes but have their promises ever been costed and what became of them? It would be interesting to get a report instead of new promises and aspirations in this year's Council election statements.

Peter Jenkins
Cardiff

Send your letter to The Editor

Previous Topic (The Society)