The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7237 p267
22 February 2003

This page
Reprint
Photocopy

PDF* 85K

  OFT report
  Supermarket pharmacy
  CPD
  Repeat prescribing
  Community pharmacy
  Locum pharmacy
  Dispensing
  YPG project
  The Profession
  Diabetes
  The Society
  Homoeopathy
  Paediatric pharmacy

Letters to the Editor

The Society

Registration suggestion is outrageous

From Mr M. P. Smith, MRPharmS

The latest consultation document from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, on mandatory continuing professional development (PJ, 8 February) proposes to alter the status of some requirements for registration. The Society cites the General Medical Council, the General Dental Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council to support its proposals. It admits the Society is not just a regulatory body, as these three are. What is it then?

The problem with trying to please the government of the day is that that such a body is transient. What will happen to the Society when the Government or policy changes?

The Industrial Pharmacists Group believes one of the Society's functions is "to maintain the honour and safeguard and promote the interests of the members in the exercise of the profession of pharmacy" (the words are from the Society's Charter). Nowhere is it mentioned that a pharmacist needs to work in the National Health Service or, indeed, in pharmacy at all. The Society's latest suggestion, that the Register may have to be divided into different branches of practice and that some pharmacists may not be allowed to use that description, is outrageous and contrary to the definition of a profession. Keeping knowledge up to date is something all professionals do, from interest alone. Practising a profession, in one branch only, constantly, from the day of admission to that profession is becoming less common as part of the changes in society generally. People change jobs, take extended breaks from work or change their area of expertise.

The Industrial Pharmacists Group believes the Society should celebrate the diversity of the profession, indeed publicise it more widely and encourage the public to consult pharmacists as the first encounter with health matters. That way the Society would be doing what the Government wants but on its own terms.

Mel Smith
Chairman
Industrial Pharmacists Group
Royal Pharmaceutical Society

Send your letter to The Editor

Previous Topic (Diabetes)
Next Topic (Homoeopathy)