Pharmacy bodies put forward options for establishing royal college
Representatives of 44 pharmacy bodies met this week to discuss ways
of establishing a royal college-type body for the profession at the invitation
of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (see Panel below).
Royal Pharmaceutical Society view
After the meeting, a Royal Pharmaceutical Society
statement said: “There
is widespread support for a professional body to support pharmacists.
A pre-event questionnaire gives a flavour of opinion from some
of those bodies that attended, with 24 of the 27 that responded
saying they are in favour of such a body. The remaining three are
more cautious, but still supportive. The overwhelming majority
either want to work with, or associate with, a royal college too.”
Society President Hemant Patel commented: “All of us involved
have a shared interest in finding the answers to questions about
what the precise functions of a future professional body might
be, including its role in setting standards and supporting members
in all sectors of the profession. It’s important that everyone
with an interest in the success of pharmacy takes part in this
debate and we will be publishing a report in mid-May on the discussions.” |
Ijeoma Uchegbu, chairman
of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, who attended the meeting,
told The Journal that the academy believes that there
should be a single college to unite all groups that work in pharmacy
and to be the repository of knowledge for pharmacy.
But the academy does not believe that it is necessary for individual
organisations to subsume themselves into a college. “At this stage all the pharmacy
organisations should work together to create a body that people will be
happy to join,” Professor Uchegbu said.
She added that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society was best placed to lead
on the formation of a college, but warned that not everyone agreed. “I
was in a minority,” she said. “A lot of people were strongly
suspicious of the Society leading the process.”
Geoff Saunders, chairman of the British Oncology Pharmacy Association,
said that it was keen to be involved with a college, either as a faculty
or as part of a faculty of specialisms, but that it would not want to
lose its identity. “We’re pleased that the Society is looking to
involve other groups,” he said. “But we don’t want to
see the Society rebadged as a royal college. A lot of opportunities could
be lost if that were to happen.”
Celia Feetam, president of the College of Mental Health Pharmacists,
said that no new organisation could be a college unless it had tiered
levels
of entry and reaccreditation processes. As an organisation that already
required accreditation for membership, the CMHP would have nothing to
gain unless the royal college-type body did the same.
“We wouldn’t want to lose our own agenda or lower any of the
standards that we have set,” she said.
She agreed that an umbrella body to reunite the profession was needed,
but wanted specialist faculties to be able to speak through the new body,
rather than have uninformed people speaking on their behalf, as at present.
The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists believes that a possible model for
the royal college could be similar to the American Society of Health-system
Pharmacists. ASHP members can be members of several groups within the
organisation, such as community pharmacy, mental health, diabetes, hospital
pharmacy,
surgery, critical care and so on.
Guild professional secretary Jean Curtis said: “There is a developing
need for clinical support groups where both hospital and community pharmacist
can learn together. This should help develop the community pharmacist’s
clinical role further.”
She added that recognition and accreditation by the college of different
levels of practice across the profession is needed to support a structured
career pathway in which employers can recognise the level of practice
achieved by members of staff. “The college should be seen to be different
from the current RPS: just tweaking the RPS will not attract members,” Mrs
Curtis said.
Representing the UK Radiopharmacy group, Adrian Hall said that the group,
which includes pharmacists and clinical scientists, would certainly want
to be associated with any future pharmacy college. “As practitioners,
we all feel that what we do amounts to the practice of pharmacy even if
it is not being done by pharmacists.”
However, commenting on the feeling of the meeting, he said: “People
would rather sell their children than have any non-pharmacists involved
in the college.” |
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