The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7249 p680
17 May 2003

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Letters to the Editor

The Register

Why can I not use my maiden name?

From Ms J. Lindsay, MRPharmS

Today I received a letter informing me that I cannot use a different name at work from that which is on my registration certificate. The information was based on the way in which I had filled in a census return.

This raised a number of concerns, not least being that many women today choose to retain their maiden names for professional use. I thoroughly object to the only option being that I should return my certificate and provide proof of my married name. Surely it is not beyond the wit of an organisation such as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to recognise the rights of women who wish to retain their registration in their maiden names.

I challenge those who issued the letter to provide alternative options for those who do not wish to change their names on the register.

The fact that I am registered as a member unable to practise due to ill-health, and have done no meaningful work as a pharmacist since 1998, is presumably irrelevant.

Jeanette Stafford (née Lindsay)
Glasgow

CHRISTINE GRAY, modernisation programme project manager, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies: I appreciate Mrs Stafford’s concern, and would like to assure her that she may choose to use either her married or her maiden name in her professional capacity, and to be registered in that chosen name.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council has recently decided that there shall be a statutory requirement for a pharmacist’s registered name to be the same as the one under which she or he practises, if applicable, or by which they are known. The purpose of this is to protect the public, by ensuring that pharmacists are clearly and accurately identifiable from the Register. It follows, therefore, that a woman pharmacist could not practise under her married name, or use that name in any professional capacity (such as countersigning a passport application) while being registered under her maiden name, or vice versa. She would, however, as a married woman, be perfectly free to practise and be registered under her maiden name, as long as she did so consistently.

In seeking to strengthen the data collected to support maintenance of the Register the Society will be reviewing what information pharmacists are required to provide in the future — the collection of information about names, including abbreviated or anglicised names, will be considered as part of that process. At present, however, the Register simply needs to reflect accurately the name that is used in any aspect of professional life.

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