Members will be balloted on new revised Charter
Members will vote by post this summer |
Members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will be balloted on a new revised draft Charter agreed by the Society's Council last week.
A postal ballot will be held over the summer and ballot papers will be
sent out at the end of next week. The revised draft Charter, along with
an explanatory article about the changes, will be published in next week’s
Journal.
The changes to the Charter that the Council agreed are described in the
Society section on p68.
The most significant changes to the Charter submitted to the Privy Council
last December are the reordering and rewording of
Objects 2 and 3 (see Panel below), and new provisions for ballots of
members for future changes.
How the new Objects compare with those in previous Charters
The Objects in the revised draft Charter are different both to those
in the December
draft Charter (PJ, 13 December 2003, p826) and the
1953 Charter.
The new Object 2 reads: “to safeguard, maintain the honour,
and promote the interests of pharmacists in their exercise of the
profession of pharmacy.” It was previously (as Object 3 in
the December draft): “to safeguard, maintain the honour, and
promote the effectiveness of the profession of pharmacy and to support
the professional interests of pharmacists.” In comparison,
the relevant Object in the existing 1953 Charter is: “to maintain
the honour and safeguard and promote the interests of the members
in their exercise of the profession of pharmacy.”
The new Object 3 reads: “to promote and protect the health
and well-being of the public through the regulation and professional
leadership and development of the pharmacy profession and the regulation
of other persons engaged in related activities.” It was previously
(as Object 2 in the December draft): “to promote and protect
the health and well-being of the public through the regulation of
the pharmacy profession and of other persons engaged in related activities.” Regulation
is not included in the Objects of the 1953 Charter. |
The Society’s President, Nicholas Wood, commented: “The
Council spent two days carefully working through the options in order
to achieve
a draft that balances the Society’s roles of representation and
regulation. I am pleased that the overwhelming
majority of members of the Council have voted for this final version.”
He added: “It is absolutely crucial that the membership now supports
this way forward and, on behalf of the Society’s Council, I urge
all members to use their right to vote to say ‘yes’ to this
revised draft. It is vital for the
future of our profession.”
The new draft Charter was supported by all Council members including
those who stood for election under the Save Our Society group banner,
except Sultan Dajani who abstained during the Council’s vote. The
SOS group said in a statement this week that it welcomed the changes,
which it describes as “more member-friendly”. The group urged
members to back the new version of the Charter in the ballot.
The SOS group supported the idea of delegating the Society’s regulatory
role to a separate board. This has not been achieved. The Journal understands
that the SOS group now accepts that the Government is not prepared to
negotiate on this point and would impose its requirement of a single
Council accountable for all of the Society’s activities through
a section 60 Order. Therefore, the SOS group is no longer pursuing this
objective. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
Reader