Society urges pharmacy technicians to consider seeking election to national boards
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is hoping that all practising registered pharmacy technicians in England and Wales will give consideration to standing in the national pharmacy board elections.
The English Pharmacy Board and the Welsh Pharmacy Board each have one
place for an elected technician as well as 11 places for elected pharmacists.
(In Scotland, where there are no plans for pharmacy technicians to be
regulated by the Society, all 12 elected places are to be filled by pharmacists.)
The Society would like to see enough nominations to provide the electorate
with a choice of candidates in each election. There is some concern that
pharmacy technicians may be inhibited from seeking election by the prospect
of being the only technician on a board otherwise made up solely of pharmacists
(plus an appointed lay member of Council in England).
Particular concern has been expressed about the situation in Wales, where
the pool of potential election candidates is small. Only about 250 pharmacy
technicians are eligible to stand for the place on the Welsh board, whereas
14 times that number — about 3,500 technicians — are able
to stand for the one place on the English board.
The Society is therefore looking for pharmacy technicians in both England
and Wales who believe they have something to offer the profession and
who enjoy taking a high level of responsibility. If not already on the
voluntary register of pharmacy technicians, they should apply to join
as soon as possible, because they will need to be registered on Part
1 (practising) of the register by 3 November in order to stand for election.
They will also need to be formally nominated by one other pharmacy technician
on the practising part of the register and with a registered address
in the same country. They might wish, however, to find more than one
nominator in case the credentials of a nominator present a problem.
Potential candidates will need to obtain a nomination form and guidance
papers, which can be found on the Society's
website by
following a link on the right of the home page; alternatively, if they
prefer to be sent hard copy, they should contact the returning officer
or other contact for their country (see Official
Notices, p465). |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal