Society national boards plan wins broad support
Each of the three home countries would have a national board |
National boards for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in England, Scotland and Wales have been broadly supported by the Company Chemists’ Association, the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, the National Pharmacy Association and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.
The organisations argue in their responses to the Society’s consultation,
which closed this week, that the Society risks losing influence and relevance
if it does not tackle the issue of devolution.
The CCA says that a failure to implement the Society’s proposals
would risk compromising decision-making and appropriate representation.
The Society would then, the GHP contends, “have little influence
on the pharmacy and medicines agenda in Scotland and Wales at a time
when health policy is diverging in the home countries”.
The CCA, GHP and PSNC all, however, believe that the establishment of
national boards should be cost neutral, and the NPA urges that “it
is essential that every effort is made to keep increase in costs to a
minimum”. All four organisations highlight the importance of pharmacists
from across the whole profession being properly represented. The CCA
says it will support the proposal to establish three national boards “if
the boards were to be representative of pharmacy as a whole, with some
allocated or reserved places for specific sectors, ensuring that the
necessary skills sets are represented”.
The GHP agrees that the different sectors of the profession all need
to be represented: “There should also be a few places reserved
for the different broad areas of practice such as hospital, primary care
and public health, to enable a full and proper debate on professional
issues, and to ensure the whole membership is represented.”
The PSNC says that board members must have real expertise and command
respect. This, it argues, will only be achieved “by
having measures to allow each identified sector to elect or appoint its
representative(s), and to ensure that meetings are focused and relevant,
and not too burdensome in terms of time”.
The CCA suggests that a Society Council member, recognised as a national
representative, be on each board, alongside three representatives of
different sectors of pharmacy, three members to ensure a range of skill
sets, three elected members, a registered pharmacy technician and a lay
person. However, both the GHP and the NPA reject the need for any lay
representation on the boards. |
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