The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7442 p268
10 March 2007

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We are where we are more
Time to rethink that one, Brent! more

We are where we are

We are where we are. This is a phrase much heard in Lambeth at the moment. For better (in many pharmacists’ minds) or worse (in others’), a General Pharmaceutical Council is to be established to register and regulate pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and premises. Although it may be tempting to look back over the past five or more years to determine why the Society finds itself in these circumstances, the bottom line is that regulation is in the gift of the Government and the Society has always had to be mindful of this.

Many pharmacists see the current state of play as grounds for huge optimism for the Society: indeed, if it can enthuse members and give them the professional support and leadership that some of them may believe they have been lacking, it will be worth the heartache of the past few years.

However, exactly which of the Society’s functions are to be assigned to the GPC is still open to debate. A News feature this week (p274) shows how little detail is yet known about what the GPC will encompass: the destination of the Registers, the inspectorate and the different statutory committees as decreed by the Pharmacy and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007 is clear. RPS Publishing is likely to stay with the professional body. Where the rest of the Society’s activities end up is less clear cut and unsettling for those directly involved.

The short term will be challenging for many people, particularly members of the Society staff, who have had to be nimble in responding to the demands made on them by successive Councils. They are the unsung heroes of the story to date. They will, no doubt, continue to serve the profession as best they can while they find themselves working to a new agenda.

Outside Lambeth there are also challenges to be met. The summary report prepared by the Society’s policy development division into the number and status of support groups within pharmacy revealed the existence of 188 across Great Britain (PJ, 3 February, p148). It is hard to believe that pharmacy really needs this number of support groups and tempting to think that many of them were established because the Society was not doing what they thought was required. The future may not be clear but it needs as many of those groups as possible to come into the fold and give support to the Society’s new mandate.

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Time to rethink that one, Brent!

Brent Teaching Primary Care Trust’s decision to stop paying for pharmacy-led stop-smoking support is madness (p275). As the bans on smoking in enclosed public places come into force next month in Wales and in July in England, smokers will need all the help they can get. Time to rethink that one, Brent!

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