The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7238 p304
1 March 2003

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Letters to the Editor

The Council

Away days cannot replace recorded debate

From Mr I. M. Caldwell, FRPharmS

I was most critical of the scope and detail of the reporting of Council meetings in my letter of 18 January (p82). It would be churlish of me not to comment on the striking improvement shown in the report of the proceedings at the February Council meeting. My thanks for that change. Fleshing out the report not only supplies detail but gives the flavour of the interactions within Council, which is essential if the membership is to understand where the Council is taking us and why.

You will not be surprised to learn that this old curmudgeon is not yet completely satisfied. In my previous letter I queried whether debate had been replaced by diktat. It is now clear that debate takes place, unreported, outwith the formal Council meetings, at so called "away days". My impression of these was that they were intended to foster lateral thinking and horizon scanning among Council members and not as replacements for recorded debate which would, when the subjects came before the Council, merely rehearse all the points again. This is not to say that there cannot be arenas in which debates are held other than in the Council chamber, but there remains an obligation to ensure that the process of decision-making in such circumstances is understood by the membership.

The decisions included in this month's Council meeting concerned recommendations for committees on the shape of a future Council and also on our duties as a regulatory body. Endorsing committee recommendations on minor routine matters may be acceptable but defining the future governance and objectives of our profession certainly does not fall into such a category. At least we now know that both subjects were debated somewhere.

Again, my congratulations to The Journal's reporting team on the expanded presentation of Council debate. Could we perhaps have voting numbers next time?

Ian Caldwell
Larkhall, Lanarkshire

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