The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7460 p55
14 July 2007

Society summary

Society shares its early thinking on the regulation White Paper

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published four summaries on its website that are intended to give members and other interested parties a flavour of its early thinking regarding the Government's intention to separate its regulatory and professional functions. The summaries are entitled:

• Establishment of General Pharmaceutical Council

• Establishing a professional leadership body

• Professional body and GPharmC — a cradle to grave relationship

• Establishing a professional leadership body — transitional route

The Society says that the papers on which these summaries are based were submitted to Lord Carter’s working party on pharmacy professional regulation in the spring and should be regarded as “a snapshot of our thinking at that early date”. It explains that it was not able to share the material with its members or staff as early as it would have liked because of the Government’s confidentiality restrictions.

Although it acknowledges that former health minister Lord Hunt said that the new professional body should be a new entity and not a reincarnation of the Society, the Society emphasises its belief that this is for the profession, not the Government, to decide. So it is pressing ahead with plans for an independent analysis of the functions and structure of a future professional body, together with in depth research to determine what members might want, need and expect from such a body. This will be followed by a formal consultation process.

Although it is comparatively easy to predict what the GPharmC will look like, the Society says that the establishment of a professional leadership body is less easy to summarise. It adds that the Council is well aware of its responsibilities as the governing body of the existing professional organisation and believes strongly that any new arrangements should bring stronger professional leadership for pharmacists.

“ We are very conscious that it is for the profession as a whole to prescribe what the future professional leadership body will look like,” it says. “The Council needs to know what the members want. If there is to be a new body for pharmacy then the membership must be at the forefront of the process.” The Society hopes these summaries will contribute to a meaningful, evidence-based debate.

• Establishment of a General Pharmaceutical Council The first summary explains what a GPharmC should do and how it should work together with the professional leadership body. The summary outlines the potential risks inherent in a transition from the current arrangements to the GPharmC and points out that the issues and risk identified could change as further analysis is undertaken and more information becomes available.

• Establishing a professional leadership body The second summary suggests the basic principles that should underpin a professional leadership body. It says the body should “bring benefits to the profession, individuals, the public, the GPharmC and the Government by providing strong strategic leadership and by encouraging and facilitating the profession’s pursuit of excellence, professionalism and innovation”.

The summary says that the Society is uniquely placed to evolve into a professional leadership body but emphasises that the Society is not complacent. “We do not want to work in isolation and want to collaborate with a number of other organisations in pharmacy,” it says.

The summary also outlines a numbers of challenges the Society believes need to be overcome in developing a professional body structure, including: culture and tradition; representing a diverse profession; a role in revalidation and standards/curriculum development; continuing professional development; expertise in medicines and science; member support; and attracting a wide membership.

• Professional body and GPharmC — a cradle to grave relationship The third summary looks at the relevance of the future professional leadership body and GPharmC to pharmacists. It describes the changing relationships of two fictional young pharmacists with the two bodies as they move through their careers from graduation to beyond retirement

• Establishing a professional leadership body — transitional route The fourth summary points out that whatever the new professional leadership body aspires to be. first and foremost it must be financially viable and suggests that the organisation might need funding to support its set-up and development in the early years of its existence. The summary says that the transition for the current position to a professional leadership body could follow a numbers of paths:

1. Allowing the Society to develop the new body, using the Society’s infrastructure as a foundation

2. Creating a new body from scratch and dissolving the Society once the GPharmC is up and running, transferring any residual assets to the new body

3. Creating a new body from scratch and having the Society continue as a membership body alongside the new professional body and the GPharmC

The summary looks in details only at option 1 (the “low friction” route) and option 3 (the “high friction” route) explaining that “we have used the term ‘friction’ to describe the level of complexity, challenge cost and duration associated with a particular path”. As for the first summary, the Society points out that the issues and risks identified could change as further analysis is undertaken and more information becomes available.

The summaries can be found on the “Regulation White Paper” page of the Society’s website.