Further tensions emerge over royal college model
Chris Elmes
Left to right: Bill Scott, Hemant Patel, the Society’s President
and chairman of the meeting, and Keith Ridge |
Further differences emerged last week over how membership of a royal-college-type body for the profession would be conferred or obtained. A range
of opinions over how membership should be determined were first mooted shortly after publication of the White Paper (PJ, 2 March,
p235).
At a briefing meeting, held at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
headquarters in London last week, representatives from the Society’s
branch network and from various pharmacy organisations discussed the
possible function and structure of a professional and clinical leadership
body and how it might be sustained. The meeting was also attended by
Keith Ridge and Bill Scott, the chief pharmaceutical officers for England
and Scotland, members of the Society’s Council and the president
of the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland.
Mark Walker, from the Oxfordshire branch of the Society, proposed that
membership of a royal college should only be open to pharmacists. This
would follow the medical royal colleges model, he said. “We have
to make a decision over the next few weeks about inclusion or exclusion
of pharmacy technicians. I feel they should be excluded,” he said.
He added that the college could invite associate members once it has
been created.
Tony Moffat, from the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, argued that
the college should be open to pharmaceutical scientists as well as pharmacists.
There are many members of the APS who are not pharmacists, he said. “They
join the Royal Pharmaceutical Society because they want to, not because
they have to. There are a lot of people who work in the pharmaceutical
sciences who would welcome joining a college that has a vision for the
future for them,” he added. Dr Ridge agreed in principle, but said: “How
we get there is up to you. It is about engagement and making that body
something which that group of scientists and professionals would wish
to join.”
In response to a question about student membership, John Gentle, a member
of the Society’s Council, highlighted that there are already several
models for students and preregistration trainees becoming associate members
of a royal college.
Maria Christou, from the Norfolk and Norwich branch, argued that the
royal college should be what people aspire to beyond basic registration. “It
should not be about getting every member it can to join because they
will pay a fee. Rather it should be around attracting people to join
because what it is doing has a focus on postgraduate education and extended
roles,” she said.
However, Mr Scott stressed that any royal college has to be cost-effective
and therefore has to encourage all members of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society to join.
“I would see being on the registers — practising or non-practising — of
the General Pharmaceutical Council as the first step to gaining membership
[of the royal college],” he said. He added that faculties could
be established to create opportunities for specialist pharmacists. “We
would be failing if we did not have a structure which accommodates these
excellent organisations within the college,” he said.
Most people saw the Society’s branch network as a valuable asset
and believed it should support revalidation of pharmacists at a local
level as part of any royal college.
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