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Letters to the Editor
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The Register
Why remove members’ addresses?
From Mr W. B. Rhodes, FRPharmS
It is with only a little sympathy and understanding but a considerable
amount of regret that I note that in future the annual Register will
no longer include members’ addresses.
I, and I am not alone, use the Register for personal communication within
the profession. When I was fortunate enough to receive a copy of the
Register as a necessary tool in my employment I always had a list of
pharmacists waiting for my old copy when a new edition came out. I cannot
pretend that many pharmacists bought copies for purely personal reasons
but there must have been a number who bought the Register for business
purposes because of the information provided. The demand for personal
information may not have brought much revenue into the Society but it
did facilitate co-operation, both professional and social, among members
and with the Society. There was a time, which possibly continues to this
day, when the Society used to earn significant income by selling copies
of, or labels for, sections of the Register which I presume will now
have to cease.
As personal details will still have to be provided to Government departments
and the like so that we can receive important mailings, I sincerely hope
that the same information will be provided on request to individual pharmacists.
If this is so, what is there to prevent one of the miscreants that apparently
some pharmacists “fear for reasons of personal safety” from
doing the same?
If, as I fear, there are going to be ways around this latest move to
depersonalise the Register, reduce its value and possibly reduce revenue,
just what is the point?
Bruce Rhodes
Winchcombe, Gloucestershire
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PHILIP GREEN, deputy secretary and registrar and director of
education and registration, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:
In December
2003 the Privy Council agreed an Order amending the Society’s
Byelaws so the printed register is to detail only the postal town
of registered members. Fears around the personal safety of pharmacists
were a genuine concern in deliberations. The Society’s position
was arrived at partly as the result of balancing the requirement
to protect the public and secure the personal safety of pharmacists.
The printed register is retrospective in that members change their
addresses, retire and die from the moment the data are drawn off
the Society’s database. In terms of being an accurate representation
of the register of pharmaceutical chemists held by the Registrar,
the printed register is out of date from the moment it is produced.
The Society has a clear policy in relation to the use of its data,
and requests for access to data have to meet the criteria laid
down by the Society before release. The Society has taken the view
that
use of registration data for commercial gain falls outside of the
reason for its collection and, therefore, falls foul of requirements
of the Data Protection Act, and does not permit it.
The Society appreciates some members may have relied on the printed
register as a valuable resource to maintain relationships and keep
up to date with friends
and colleagues. Although prevented from releasing labels or names and addresses,
the registration section is happy to forward on stamped/ prepaid correspondence
to members where the name and registration number of the member is known. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal