The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7401 p607
20 May 2006

Society summary

Sunderland’s “Three amigos”

Following from Sunderland branch committee member David Carter’s success in the recent elections for Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and the election of fellow committee member Umesh Patel to chairman of the National Pharmacy Association for the coming year, Sunderland branch chairman, Mark Burdon, also newly appointed to the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee board said: “It is an honour for any of us individually to represent colleagues at the national level but it is a great acknowledgment for the local branch to have three representatives on the main national pharmaceutical bodies. The branch is an active branch and hosts several series of in-depth clinical meetings for the benefit of its members, each year, together with well attended social events.”

David Carter added: “The local branch usually attracts about 60 or more members to its meetings and is a popular forum locally for education. Many members use the clinical meetings we put on as the backbone to their continuing professional development recording.”

All three committee members have served as chairman of the local branch in the past and are all practising community pharmacists.

Committee member Umesh Patel has served on the NPA board since 1998 and sits on the PSNC. He is also a member of the Border Region Committee of the Society. Vice-chairman David Carter is secretary of the Border Region Committee of the Society and chairman of Gateshead and South Tyneside Local Pharmaceutical Committee. Chairman Mark Burdon is a member of the Border Region Committee of the Society and sits as committee member on several local LPCs.

The photograph shows “the three amigos” at the annual dinner dance pictured with Jim Smith, professor of pharmacy practice and policy at the University of Sunderland, Hemant Patel, President of the Society, and Ian Spencer, clinical governance lead at the local strategic health authority.