The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 271 No 7270 p523
11 October 2003

Society summary

From the President: Listening to pharmacists — A revised draft Royal Charter

The President of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Dr Gill Hawksworth, urges members to respond to the new consultation on a new Charter for the Society

Earlier this year, the Council decided to seek a new supplemental Charter for the Society and conducted a wide-ranging consultation to help inform the content of the new Charter. The feedback came from individual responses, from the special general meeting, from organisations, branches and roadshow meetings. We opted for the widest possible consultation because the issues are complex and we believed that people would welcome the opportunity to talk them through with us, face to face where possible, and to comment on as many aspects as they wished. As the consultation unfolded, it became clear that we would not be able to do justice to the range of points that were being raised by means of a "yes/no" referendum on the revised draft.

I was pleased to see that members had indeed seized the opportunity to provide a wide range of views on many points within the draft. These were collated and presented to the Council. The Council has listened carefully to these views and, noting the key themes that emerged, has produced a new revised draft Royal Charter for the Society. The Council has decided to issue this revised draft for further consultation, before taking final decisions on the new Charter in December 2003. The Council does not want to restrict this consultation to any single question — we want to encourage feedback on any aspect of the revised draft Charter that people have concerns about.

The revised draft Charter will be available on the Society’s website from 11 October. It will be published in The Journal on 18 October. A feedback form will be distributed at the same time. Comments are invited from everyone with an interest in the new Charter. They can be made in writing, using the feedback form or by letter, fax or e-mail, to Christine Gray, Modernisation Project Manager at the Society’s Headquarters (e-mail cgray@rpsgb.org.uk, fax 020 7572 2501).

Comments must be received by Friday 14 November 2003.