The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7299 p597
15 May 2004

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NPA to reflect community pharmacy more widely

Previously excluded pharmacy owners are to be allowed to become members of the National Pharmaceutical Association in order to strengthen the association’s claim to represent community pharmacy fully.

This was one of the first decisions taken by the newly elected management board of the NPA on 4 May. It implements one of the NPA’s strategic objectives set out in a five-year plan adopted by the association in 2001.

NPA chief executive John D’Arcy said: “You can only properly claim to speak for community pharmacy if you are prepared to take all pharmacy owners into membership.”

Previously excluded groups included the ASDA supermarket chain and pharmacies owned by GPs and their close relatives. Mr D’Arcy said: “These pharmacies are registered by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee negotiates for them and they have superintendent pharmacists. The fact is that these are persons lawfully conducting retail pharmacy businesses.”

The reasons for exclusion of certain pharmacy groups from NPA membership lie in historical rivalries and conflicting interests. ASDA was excluded because the company supported the abolition of resale price maintenance when the pharmacy profession as a whole wanted RPM to continue. Doctor-owned pharmacies were excluded because of the long-standing business conflicts between rural pharmacies and dispensing doctors. Some doctors launched their own pharmacies in order to prevent pharmacists winning their dispensing business.

Times have changed and there is more collaboration and co-operation between pharmacists and doctors. Mr D’Arcy said: “Local pharmaceutical services, personal medical services and the new general medical services contract are bringing the professions together and there are even partnerships between doctors and pharmacists. The future will see new working models. We could be backward looking and draw a line in the sand or we can respond to the changes.”