| · Fellowship of the Society (3)
· Overseas pharmacists (10)
· The Society (5)
· Retention fee (4)
· CPD (4)
· PECs
· Drug donations
· Dispensing errors
· Dispensing
· Morphine sulphate
· Near patient testing
· Slimming clubs
· New contract
· The Journal
Letters to the Editor
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The Society
Details of staff pensions please!
From Mr J. Canning, MRPharmS
Might it be possible to publish the lists of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society’s salary scales from Secretary and Registrar down, including
the totals at each level, how many new employees were at each level in
2004 and the types of fringe benefits deemed appropriate at each level?
In particular, at a time when the Society’s treatment of its pensioner
and retired members is in focus, it would be of interest to know the
details of the pension scheme for the Society’s staff. Is it final
salary or final fund based? If the former, has it been recently actuarially
checked? Has the balance between assets and liabilities been reported
on? Is there any danger of a funding “black hole” in providing
staff pensions hitting future members?
Jim Canning
Warlingham, Surrey
| |
BERNARD KELLY, director of resources, Royal Pharmaceutical Society,
replies:
The Society has just one occupational pension scheme which
is a defined benefit scheme and this was closed to new members
in January 2003. Since then a defined benefit group personal pension
scheme has been made available for new members of staff.
In accordance with the regulations governing approved pension schemes,
the trustees are required to obtain an actuarial valuation at least
once every three years.
In accordance with standard accounting and reporting practices the details
of the Society’s pension fund and the disclosures as required under FRS 17
are detailed in notes to the Society’s financial statements each year.
The most recent of these disclosures, which is based upon a valuation carried
as at 31 December 2001 is detailed in note 16 to the Society’s financial
statements for the year ended 31 December 2003.
Information regarding employee costs and remuneration is also included in the
financial statements. The Society’s financial statements for this and prior
years can be viewed online and downloaded from the Society’s website
or a hard copy can be obtained by application to the Secretary and Registrar. |
A love affair with regulation?
From Mr R. Blyth, FRPharmS
I read with interest G.
B. Drummond’s letter commenting upon the
rapid expansion of staff numbers at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society “whose
function is to provide erudite footnotes on letters pages of The
Journal” (PJ,
18/25 December 2004, p881). It was intriguing to refer back to the immediately
preceding letter (on continuing professional development) on the same
page because it carried such a footnote nearly twice as long as the letter.
The exponential growth at the Society of numbers of directors and heads
of this and that and, dare I mention it, similar growth of retention
fees is the result of the present Government’s love affair with
regulation piled on regulation or bureaucracy gone mad.
Will all this be of advantage to the patient? I doubt it. Quite the reverse
probably. Paradox is an inescapable aspect of the human condition.
Lord Butler, a former head of the Home Civil Service, said recently that
the executive was much too free to bring in extremely bad Bills, a huge
amount of regulation … all … part of what is bad government in
this country (Spectator, 11 December 2004).
Robert Blyth
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
Use of PhC designation
From Mrs B. M. Rainbow
Since I have resigned my membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
I can no longer use MRPharmS after my name. I qualified in 1955 by taking
the Pharmaceutical Society’s diploma. In those days we could put
PhC after our name. Does this no longer apply?
Brenda Rainbow
Newcastle-under-Lyme,
Staffordshire
| |
ANN LEWIS, Secretary and Registrar, Royal Pharmaceutical Society,
states:
Section 78 of the Medicines Act 1968 restricts the use
of certain titles, descriptions and emblems. Section 78 5(A) states
that any person who is not a pharmacist shall not take or use certain
titles. One such title is that of “Pharmaceutical Chemist”.
Therefore a member who has resigned from the Society’s Register
is no longer a registered pharmacist and will not be able to call
himself or herself a pharmaceutical chemist. |
A bold suggestion
From Mr A. J. Daniel, MRPharmS
Is there any need to send a Journal to every pharmacist? Why not just
send one to registered premises which could be shared by all the pharmacists
that work there. Secondly — a bold suggestion — why does
the Society not move from London? The Lambeth headquarters must be an
expensive place to keep up and could be sold for a fortune. The Society
could then relocate to a cheaper location giving better access to pharmacists
outside London. Also Society staff would not need to be paid London-weighted
salaries.
Andrew Daniel
Swansea
| |
Since The Journal carries the Society’s Official Notices,
a copy must be sent to each member at the registered address.
— EDITOR
|
Time to get the secateurs out
From Mr M. R. Price, MRPharmS
Had Marx been alive today would he be writing about the exploitation of
the mild mannered and soft-touch middle classes?
I recently planned my 2005 budget. I estimated my next year’s earnings
and reconciled them with expected fixed and variable costs. This affords
me a good snapshot on costs over the years, particularly allowing me to
monitor fixed costs over which I have little control.
Two such fixed costs glare at me — council tax and Royal Pharmaceutical
Society retention fees. Using an online cost of living index calculator
(Cleave Books and Exeter University), I worked out that over 10 years council
tax had exceeded the index by a staggering 98 per cent. Our Society’s
fees, over the past five years, have only exceeded the index by a “modest” 63
per cent. My daily fee has increased, but only beats the index by a handful
of percentage points, a small recompense for experience.
I have improved my profitability but it has been done by the regular method:
cutting costs. Perhaps the Society has a few lessons to learn in this area.
If its costs are spiralling, then it needs to get the secateurs out and
do some pruning. If it does not, it may face what Marx may not have predicted:
a bourgeoisie revolt.
Mike Price
Chepstow, Monmouthshire |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal