|  Unlike the Prime Minister, who is determined to stay in 10
Downing Street for 10 years, Ann Lewis, Secretary and Registrar of the
Royal Pharmaceutical
Society, is retiring a few months short of her decade from what is probably
the hardest job in pharmacy.
Miss Lewis, who was appointed in August 1998 and started work in December
that year, will be leaving the Society in the autumn. “I am prepared
to be flexible about when I go but it will be near the end of September,” she
says.
“Recruitment for my successor is due to start in the next few weeks
and it depends on when he or she can take over. But one thing is for
sure:
I do not intend to haunt the
future,” she smiles.
Miss Lewis’s association with the Society’s headquarters
at 1 Lambeth High Street stretches back for 20 years. She joined the
Council in 1987 and served two terms as President. And it was while she
was President in 1995 that she was instrumental in the launch of the “Pharmacy
In A New Age” project at that year’s British Pharmaceutical
Conference. This, she believes, will be a lasting legacy for the profession.
“I worked closely with various Councils to make sure that the main
conclusions of PIANA were adopted by government. Recognising pharmacists
have a clinical
role to play in the health service, prescribing rights, their role in
public health and making pharmacies the first port of call for patients
wanting health advice — these underpin the way pharmacy is now
moving forward,” she explains. “This process started in the
hospital service and one of the highpoints of my time at the Society
was when the pharmacist’s clinical role in primary care started
to be recognised.
“During my years as Secretary and Registrar the profession has
changed radically. Just think back: where was it going 10 years or so
ago? I
think we now have a clear idea. The opportunities for pharmacists are
much greater than they were 10 to 15 years ago. As a result of innovative
practitioners taking it forward, supported by the Society, pharmacy is
now in a different place.”
Miss Lewis recognises that any group or profession going through change
always
experiences difficulties. Everyone finds change difficult at some level
and some people actively resist it. With the benefit of hindsight, she
wishes she had tackled communication with the profession differently.
“During the development of PIANA we had really good contact and
discussions within the profession and I wish I had maintained that support
when we
were going through the changes more recently,” she shrugs.
However, the Society now, she believes, with the establishment of the
national boards for pharmacy in the three home countries, is in a much
stronger position to work with the respective
governments and to respond to the demands of devolution.
“Although the Society can’t influence negotiations with the
governments it can help influence the policy framework,” she emphasises. “The
development of the boards as a framework for professional leadership
is a good starting point and should enable the profession to capitalise
on the significant developments that pharmacists have already made in
each country.”
Miss Lewis believes that the Society and the profession punch much above
their political weight although the members do not always appreciate
that. “We are a small profession — just over 40,000 people — and
we are well recognised by government. One of the challenges for the future
is to get equal public recognition for the Society.”
Change has not been confined to the Society and the membership. She believes
that the style of the Councils with which she has worked since 1998 has
also changed. Pharmacy politics — like the profession itself — is
also in a different place.
“People’s attitudes to authority generally and people’s
respect for institutions have changed. The general public are more informed
and
more challenging and this has had an impact on the Government and the
Society and in the way the Society’s Council operates. The Council
today is more questioning than some of its predecessors — and that
can only be a good thing.”
She goes on to explain that everybody operates in a hugely different
environment to the one they were in 20 years ago. “For an organisation
[the Society] that was established when unquestioning respect existed,
the rapid metamorphosis into a more touchy feely responsive organisation
was bound to be fraught with difficulties.” This has led to criticism
of the Society in general and Miss Lewis in particular, some of which
she believes has been unfair.
“There is a perception that the Society is uncaring. It is true
that we have had to become more robust in terms of governance and developing
the regulatory aspects of the Society’s role. But members who ring
or write to me complaining about us start off thinking that they are
not going to receive any support and end up realising that the Society
does help.”
Miss Lewis has been closely involved in the evolution of the new legislation
for the regulation of the profession — of which she is as equally
proud as she is of the professional developments, although many people
in the profession will not share her view.
“You can never satisfy all of the people all of the time,” she
smiles. “But
the legislation hadn’t been touched for 50 years,” she points
out, “and it needed to be updated. Come what may, we now have a
framework that will stand the profession in good stead whatever structures
are in place.”
Another strand of unfair criticism stems, she believes, from a lack of
understanding of what the Society can do. “The Section 60 Order
[which will bring in the new regulatory framework] is still going through
Parliament and this delay is the responsibility not of the Society but
of the Department of Health — yet that does not prevent members
blaming the Society.”
Miss Lewis accepts that some of the criticism has been fair: “Members
have expectations that we can’t meet. We can’t change their
individual professional circumstances. But where criticism is justified
I hope I have changed myself and responded.”
Miss Lewis has no regrets about being involved in such a period of unprecedented
change. “I am glad to have done it when change has been so important.
After the publication of the Kennedy report, giving us the framework
for restructuring the Society’s workings, I was able to create
a team that was relevant to the time. I have really enjoyed working with
them over the past few years.
“I have also enjoyed working with both pharmacists and lay people
on various Councils, some of whom have had a huge influence on the profession.
It
is often said that the Society is a friendly place to work — and
it really is.”
She acknowledges that the difficulties created over the introduction
of the new Charter during 2003 and 2004 were a low point for her.
By way of explanation she returns to the issue of communication: “Initially
we failed to engage the profession. But the messages we needed to get
across were complicated and highly technical and we did not succeed.
Nevertheless, we now have a contemporary, relevant Charter and it must
not be forgotten that there is much more in the new Charter that is uncontroversial
than is controversial,” she stresses.
And what about the future? “My aspirations for the Society as our
professional body have not yet been met. I hoped that it would have gained
the high ground for the profession — backed up by a sound evidence
base and a level of scholarship that will support further professional
development and recognition. I hoped we might have got further down that
road but that’s another challenge for the person who follows me,” she
smiles.
Although Miss Lewis may be retiring from pharmacy’s top job she
has every intention to continue working (as well as honing her fishing
skills). “I would like to contribute to health service development
in its broadest sense in the next few years.”
For those pharmacists who have never met Miss Lewis, she stands at five
feet and a quarter of an inch, with her energy and enthusiasm in inverse
proportion to her height. She seems as determined as ever: “From
an early age if I wanted to do something or have something I always said ‘when’,
never ‘if’. Those who know me well and have seen me deal
with the challenges will, I hope, have seen that I have managed to keep
my sense of humour.”
There must have been times when that has been hard but Ann Lewis, with
twinkly eyes and that ready smile, seems still to be enjoying herself.
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal