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Letters to the Editor
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Council election
Number of pharmacists voting will continue to fall
From Mr P. Mutton, MRPharmS
The percentage of the membership voting in the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society’s Council elections has dropped yet again — despite
a “reminder” due to the administrative problem affecting
this year’s election.
Low voting numbers have nothing to do with the method of election but
everything to do with the calibre and effectiveness of candidates.
I have been on the Register for nearly 30 years and have always returned
my ballot paper. However, this year my return will have been counted
as one of the 64 “disallowed as invalid”. I carefully read
the statements of all the candidates and regretfully concluded that there
was not a single candidate whose statement displayed even the remotest
hint that they could offer anything to deliver my aspirations for the
profession. I therefore marked my ballot paper with a statement to that
effect. “Invalid” as a vote perhaps, but not invalid as an
opinion, I trust.
While the President of our Society trumpets the “huge progress
that the pharmacy profession has made” in his statement in the
2005 Annual Review, it is becoming increasingly clear that the progress
is being made in spite of the Council and not because of it. Progress
is being made because both the Government and academia recognise the
sociological drivers for change and because there are sufficient numbers
of clinically motivated pharmacists around to start delivering a clinically
focused agenda. In this environment, the membership increasingly feels
that the Council has little impact on their professional work and, therefore,
ignores it.
The feeling, of course, is mutual. Whatever motivates the members of
our Council, it is clearly not a wish to engage in two-way communication
with the membership. Figures published in the Annual Review show that,
on average, each Council member attended just over one regional or branch
meeting last year. With that level of commitment to engage with the membership
we can surely expect the numbers voting in Council elections to continue
to fall.
Peter Mutton
Conon Bridge,
Ross-shire
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal