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Letters to the Editor
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The Society
Are we really in tune?
From Mr I. G. Simpson, FRPharmS
Singing from the same hymn sheet — but are we in tune and
in time?
Tom Moberly, Mandie Lavin, Christine Gray and Eileen Neilson have done
an excellent job at seeking to persuade us that, in some respects,
the Society and the Department of Health, as represented in the Foster
review, are “singing
from the same hymn sheet” (PJ, 19
August, p216). In the imaginative illustration accompanying the article,
readers with good eyesight and an interest in church music may have
identified one of the hymns as “All glory, laud and honour”,
to the tune St Theodulph. Recalling the percussion accompaniment to
this tune, which I learnt over 45 years ago, I fear that the Society
and the DoH may not be marching to the same drumbeat, and there might
even be the occasional wrong note.
First of all, Foster alleges that the Society is out of step with other
regulators and threatens to bring it into line by requiring separation
of its regulatory and professional leadership functions. However, from
the comments
of the Society’s Vice-President, Gerald Alexander,
it would appear that the Society’s response to this will be to
persuade the DoH that the Society can continue with the two roles,
and that adequate separation can be achieved and demonstrated (PJ,
5 August, p173).
Secondly, I think that Foster is out of step with the Society, and
indeed with reality, in failing to recognise that it is the Statutory
Committee and not the Society’s Council, which carries out the
disciplinary function, a situation which will continue under the Section
60 Order. This being the case, there seems to be no good reason to
require the professional members of Council to be appointed by Government
rather than be elected by members.
So, returning to the musical analogy, we may well be singing from the
same hymn sheet, but there are still some discrepancies in the beat
and a few bars of dischord. There is much orchestration and rehearsing
to be done before the Society can deliver a performance in unison with
its members, in harmony with the DoH, and in time with other regulators.
Ian Simpson
Old Marston, Oxford
Ethics' guide for everyone
From Ms J. Landau, MRPharmS
To David Thomas, who thinks that non-practising pharmacists should not
receive the “Medicines, ethics and practice guide” (PJ,12 August,
p188), I say that, although I am now non-practising, I am fortunately neither
disinterested nor dead. As a paying member since 1960, I have been a life-long
learner, maintaining an active membership and reading the PJ while in practice
overseas. Even though many matters under discussion have not always concerned
me directly, I have been interested in what has happened to others. Colleagues
still regard my opinion as worthwhile and thousands of students have been
influenced by my teaching (and ethics) during my career as a pharmacy faculty
member in the US. I was also one of the few who voted in the recent Society
council election. Pharmacy practice has played a huge role in my life and
still does. I had, in fact, just read much of the guide when I came across
the letter from Mr Thomas. Forgive the blowing of my own trumpet but I
am entitled to receive it.
Janet Landau
Associate Professor Emeritus, Pharmacy Practice
Long Island University,
New York |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal