The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 274 No 7345 p462
16 April 2005

Society summary

Registrar strikes 870 pharmacists from the Register for non-payment of retention fees

Names of 870 pharmacists were removed from the Register of Pharmaceutical Chemists on 6 April for non-payment of fees for 2005.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council ordered the strikings-off at its April Council meeting. The Council was reminded that all those concerned had been issued with a statutory demand for payment on 2 February. The period expired on 4 April.

The number of strikings-off is considerably higher than in 2004, when 350 were struck off in mid-May, and 2003, when just over 300 were struck off in July. The Director of Education and Registration, Philip Green, told the Council that although the 2005 figure was higher than in than previous years, it was well within the Society’s limits of acceptability in terms of what was expected to happen in the light of the earlier striking-off date and the restructuring of the register.

The list of erasures is published as an Official Notice this week for the benefit of potential employers and others (see p470). The Society says that the list may include the names of deceased members whose deaths have not been notified to the Society. Information would be welcome in such instances.

Only 429 (49 per cent) of those struck off had registered addresses in Britain, with a further 24 in Northern Ireland, one in the Isle of Man and two in the Channel Islands.

Of 145 with addresses elsewhere in the European Economic Area, most (101) are in the Republic of Ireland, with a further 26 in Spain. (In addition, about 60 of those with UK addresses have names that appear to be Spanish.)

A further 275 names have addresses outside the EEA, across a total of 25 countries. The vast majority of these are in English-speaking Commonwealth countries, with Australia having the largest share (85), followed by Canada (34), New Zealand (23) and South Africa (20). Outside the Commonwealth, the largest number have addresses in the US (30).

The Secretary and Registrar told the April Council meeting that the fee collection exercise had worked well. After a decision in August to bring the processing of payments in-house, the staff had worked extremely hard and the outcome had been successful. By the close of January, 83 per cent of pharmacists had paid, compared with fewer than 50 per cent in the previous three years. By the close of February, 90 per cent had paid.

The offer of online processing had been well received. The processing volume was highest during January, with a peak of 1,800 forms and 1,000 online payments successfully processed in a single day. That was quite an achievement. About 16,000 members had paid online, including 50 per cent of all members aged under 30 years and more than 55 per cent of members overseas. Overall, 30 per cent of those based in the UK paid online.

So far as retirements were concerned, over 80 per cent of members who retired from the register were from membership categories that did not permit them to work in Britain.