Light at the end of the tunnel
In June 2003, a special general meeting of around 350 pharmacists asked the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to “arrange for a referendum of the entire membership to be held to establish the level of support for any proposed new Charter once the details of any such proposal(s) have been finalised” (PJ, 7 June 2003, p802).
The proposer of the SGM motion referred to the Council’s worry,
set out in “Fit for the future: Why do we need a new Charter?”,
that the debate on reform was being monopolised by “a small but
vocal minority whose views do not reflect the majority view”. He
insisted that a referendum was the only way to find the views of the “silent
majority”.
Now, one tumultuous year later, the Charter ballot has been held and
9.3 per cent of the membership has voted (p277). Although the “yes” vote
won the day, the percentage of the membership voting “yes” amounts
to only 7.9 per cent; but, on the other hand, only 1.4 per cent of the
membership voted “no”. The silent majority, it appears, has
remained silent.
Given that the Privy Council requires the Society to demonstrate the
support of members in its application for a new Charter, how it will
view such a poor response remains to be seen. But the fact that members,
having sought a referendum, have now been given an opportunity to vote
may be enough for the Privy Council. Let us hope the “yes” vote
is a light at the end of the tunnel.
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Good news for community pharmacists
This week’s announcement that the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has reached an agreement over the funding of the new community pharmacy contract (p277) is good news for pharmacists. It is another step — and a significant one at that — towards the new contract being implemented.
The new contract will undoubtedly create opportunities for community
pharmacists to develop services and to gain recognition for the professional
roles they provide. But there are still many issues that need to be tackled.
This is demonstrated by the new role of First Contact practitioners (p282).
Three pharmacists are among the first 146 professionals in training to
become patients’ first point of contact with the NHS; an alternative
to GPs. The first hurdle they face is access to patients’ medical
records. In March, Health Minister Rosie Winterton promised that proposals
to allow community pharmacists access to patients’ records were
on the cards (PJ, 6 March, p267). Pharmacists are still waiting.
Then there is independent prescribing by pharmacists. Again, a consultation
on this has been promised by Government, and that promise was restated
by the chief pharmaceutical officer for England, Jim Smith, last month
(PJ, 17 July, p91). We hope it is published soon.
If pharmacy is to move forward — and with the new contractual framework
it has a real opportunity to do so — then the Government has to
consider the profession’s development in its entirety. Failing
to do so will seriously restrict pharmacy’s future.
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Pharmaceutical Journal