Independent Pharmacy Federation launched
A new organisation exclusively to represent the interests of independent
community pharmacists across the UK was launched this week.
Around 24 pharmacists from England and Wales gathered in Milton Keynes
in Buckinghamshire on 5 October to take the first steps in drawing up
a constitution for the newly formed Independent Pharmacy Federation.
The federation is being set up because its founder members believe that
the existing community pharmacy organisations — the National Pharmacy
Association and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, as
well as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society — do not properly represent
their views or interests.
Founder members, who include Society Council member Graham Phillips,
are also concerned that the billions of pounds being spent on the new
community pharmacy contract may not necessarily benefit independent contractors.
They are also worried that recent mergers of high street chains and the
proposed merger between Boots and Alliance UniChem mean that the voice
of independent pharmacists — who make up 48 per cent of contractors
in England — will not be heard.
Lincolnshire independent community pharmacist Noel Baumber, a former
member of the Society’s Council and the PSNC, said before the meeting: “Although
there are independent pharmacists on the PSNC they are not especially
active and do not represent any particular point of view. What we want
is one single
body for independent pharmacists which is a single route for the PSNC
to get information from, to receive an informed point of view and meet
our interests.”
Lancashire independent community pharmacist Fin McCaul, fellow founder
member, said independent pharmacists are often innovators but the present
representative system makes if difficult for them to share best practice
with others.
The needs of the independent sector, he said, fell between the NPA, the
PSNC and the Society. “Unless something is done at a
national level independents will continue to decrease and with that all
pharmacy and patients will suffer. There is a definite need for a national
body solely for independents, one from which the major bodies can seek
the views of independents and one where independents can have faith in
that body to represent them and not everybody.”
The PSNC has 31 members, five of whom are nominated by the NPA and 15
elected by contractors on a regional basis. The remaining 11 represent
the Company Chemists’ Association, the Co-operative Pharmacy Association
and the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies.
PSNC chief executive Sue Sharpe said: “In my experience the independent
pharmacy contractors who sit on the PSNC have consistently shown themselves
to have the interests of their fellow independent contractors close to
their hearts, and I have never seen any sign that they have been lax
or overwhelmed by the 11 representatives of multiple pharmacies.”
John D’Arcy, chief executive of the NPA, said that 60 per cent
of its members are independent pharmacists and up to 20 of its 23 board
members also fell into the same
category.
He said: “The last thing we need is fragmentation — we need
togetherness. If we have lots of bodies which represent different segments
of the sector which might have four different views — how can you
pick out the coherent view of the profession? It will be very difficult.”
He said he would also like to know what were the “deficiencies” of
the NPA that the federation had identified. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
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