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The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 272 No 7292 p382 27 March 2004	This article Reprint Photocopy
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Letters to the Editor

The register

Unsatisfactory explanation

From Mr W. B. Rhodes, FRPharmS

You kindly published a letter from me on 21 February (p216) criticising the decision to remove members’ addresses from the Register. I welcome the support of John Hunt in his letter published on 13 March (p317) and the comments made personally to me by others. I would urge anyone who shares our view to make them known. The common feeling is that the explanation given by Philip Green, the deputy secretary and registrar, is unconvincing to say the least. A fellow member assures me that he took up Mr Green’s offer to send a letter to the Society for forwarding to the person whose address he had lost, and was informed that this could only be done on payment of £25!

Until recently any pharmacist could obtain the address of a colleague or check that he was on the Register by telephoning his branch secretary, who has a copy of the Register, for the cost of a local call. We now have a pretty useless Register and a charge of £25 to obtain something that was previously freely available and the only reason we have been given is that some pharmacists “fear for reasons of personal safety”. Would any of the “fearful” pharmacists like to support the Council’s decision?

Bruce Rhodes
Winchcombe, Gloucestershire

Philip Green, deputy secretary and registrar and director of education and registration, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:

No fee is levied when forwarding correspondence to registered pharmacists. Staff make every effort to identify the pharmacist concerned, but in many cases registered pharmacists share the same name and initials, so registration numbers are required to identify the particular individual correctly. Where registration numbers are not known, a register search conducted on the Society’s website can provide these.

A £25 fee is levied for a manual register search, where written confirmation is provided by the Society that an individual is or is not a registered pharmacist, and this appears to be the fee to which Mr Rhodes refers.

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