Society complains about delay to Section 60 Order
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has written to the Department of Health to complain about a further delay to the Pharmacy Order under Section 60 of the Health Act 1999.
Delays to the Section 60 Order are an ongoing theme. The process of making
the Order involves the publication of a draft Order, followed by a three-month
consultation before the Order is finally made. The consultation was originally
planned for January 2004 but delays at the DoH meant that it was rescheduled
for the autumn (PJ, 19 June 2004, p775). However, in October 2004 the
Society was advised that the consultation would not be published until
December (PJ, 16 October 2004, p584). At the time, the Society complained
about the delay.
This week, the Society said that the DoH had now informed it that the
consultation has been delayed until May 2005. The DoH
expects that the Section 60 Order will then be made in December 2005.
As a result, the President has written to health ministers Lord Warner
and Rosie Winterton to state that the continuing delays are not acceptable.
Furthermore, the Secretary and Registrar has written a similar letter
to Andrew Foster, the director of workforce at the Department of Health.
A DoH spokeswoman told The Journal that the DoH will be responding to
the Society’s concerns in due course but that she was currently
unable to elaborate further. |
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