The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7300 p649
22 May 2004

Society summary

SOS clean sweep in Council election

All seven candidates from the Save Our Society campaign have been elected to the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Hassan Argomandkhah, Shiv Bagga, Sid Dajani, Davan Eustace, Maurice Hickey, John Jolley and Graham Phillips all gained at least 500 votes more than any other candidate.

In their election statements, the SOS candidates all pledged to honour members’ democratic right to determine the future of the Society, to work for a strong and independent future for the profession, to halt the moves to “reposition the [Society] as a government regulatory quango”, and to reinstate Object 3 of the existing Charter so that the Society must continue to “promote the interests of members”.

Having already served two three-year terms on the Council, Mr Dajani was the only retiring Council member to be re-elected. Mr Dajani, who lives in Andover, is a partner in an independent pharmacy and secretary of a local pharmaceutical committee.

Hassan Argomandkhah is a proprietor community pharmacist and part-time lecturer in Liverpool. He has nine years’ previous service on the Council, from 1994 to 2003. John Jolley, from Norwich, also has previous Council experience, having served briefly after being co-opted in 1998. He is a head of medicines management and a freelance pharmaceutical consultant.

Maurice Hickey has been a pharmacist contractor in Forres since 2000. He is a member of the Society’s Scottish Executive. Graham Phillips, from St Albans, is proprietor of the Manor Pharmacy Group. Shiv Bagga, from Woodford Green, Essex, is a proprietor pharmacist. Davan Eustace, from Solihull, is a branch manager for Lloydspharmacy.

The six new Council members replace Andrew Burr, Wally Dove, Sally Greensmith, Helen Howe and Ashwin Tanna, who were unsuccessful in the election, and Marshall Davies, who chose not to seek re-election.

Andrew Burr, a proprietor pharmacist, has lost his place on the Council after nine years’ service. Ashwin Tanna, a community pharmacy manager, also has nine years’ service — from 1985 to 1991 and then since 2001. Helen Howe, a hospital pharmacist, was co-opted on to the Council in 1997 and then elected in 1998 and 2001. Wally Dove, director of a retail pharmacy company, and Sally Greensmith, a community pharmacy facilitator for primary care trusts, both leave the Council after serving one three-year term.

The other unsuccessful candidates were Peter Curphey, Gordon Geddes and Andrea Robinson.

Out of the 46,445 voting papers issued, 10,579 were returned (357 more than in 2003) and 27 were disallowed as invalid. The percentage returned was 22.8, compared with 22.4 in 2003 and 20.1 per cent in 2002.


Official notice, p655