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Letters to the Editor
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Health committee
Will pharmacists with ill health be helped?
From Dr S. Pashley
I can appreciate the need to monitor the activities of pharmacists with
severe health problems (PJ, 8 April, p412). But it is misleading to announce
the new scheme on your cover as “How a health committee will support
ill pharmacists”. Do I detect spin?
My dictionary defines support as “to give practical or emotional
help to someone”. I expected to learn about an initiative to enhance
the well-being of unfortunate pharmacists, only to find your feature
replete with phrases such as “brought before the health committee”, “placing
conditions on practice”, and “face suspension”. There
appears to be nothing in the way of compassion or welfare.
Steve Pashley
Thame, Oxfordshire
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SHONA COY, head of fitness to practise and of the
advisory service at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, responds:
The purpose
of the health
committee will be to ensure an appropriate regulatory route which
enables a fair and impartial adjudication of whether an individual is
unfit
to practise due to ill health. The experience of other regulatory
bodies in the health care field is that a referral to a health committee
may
be the first step towards acceptance of a health impairment and a
commencement on the journey of rehabilitation and recovery. Protection
of the public
is of paramount importance. Individuals suffering from ill health
may themselves lack the insight or awareness of the risk they may pose
by
virtue of their health status.
The introduction of robust, fair and compassionate health processes
is not a matter of spin, but a matter of fact.
The Benevolent Fund, the Pharmacists Health Support Programme and the Listening
Friends Scheme exist to offer support and advice to pharmacists and their
dependants. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal