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Letters to the Editor
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Registration examination
Completely pointless
From Ms F. N. S. Zaidi, MRPharmS
I would like to join Ian
Davis (PJ, 23 July, p113) in congratulating
Sultan Dajani (PJ, 16 July, p82) for standing up against the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society’s policy and exposing the examination for what it really
is — an outdated, unrealistic and irrelevant joke. However unlike
Mr Davis I do not agree that the examination is almost pointless. It
is totally, utterly and completely pointless.
Mr Davis described his friend who had recently failed the examination
and was naturally upset. Luckily she has another two attempts at the
examination. Last week’s PJ gave a breakdown of this year’s
results. The article stated that 10 candidates had failed the examination
for the third time. I am sure most of us did not give this information
a second thought. Please think for a moment of those people whose hard
earned degrees are now rendered useless. Think of the humiliation and
devastation not to mention the financial hardship that they are experiencing.
All of this is because the Society deems anyone who has not passed the
examination to be incompetent. As far as I am aware the majority of the
membership, including most Council members, have never taken the examination.
Are these pharmacists incompetent too?
Since the examination was introduced in 1993, how many people’s
lives have been ruined as a result of the narrow-minded and arbitrary “three
strikes and you’re out” rule? What has the Society done to
help these people whose lives it has devastated? Surely if the Society
wants to promote pharmacy as a caring profession then it has a duty to
help and advise those candidates affected?
Farah Zaidi
Bolton, Lancashire
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal