The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7479 p576
24 November 2007

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Retention fee 2008

Society’s fee increase may hamper progress of future professional body, says PSNC

Development of pharmacy's future professional body may be hampered by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's decision to increase fees for 2008 substantially, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee has warned.

Criticising the decision of the Society’s Council to set fees for practising pharmacists at £395 (PJ, 10 November 2007, p517), a spokesman for the PSNC said: “The substantial increase imposed by the Council will give no reassurance to both pharmacists and pharmacy contractors that it has exercised its powers appropriately and may seriously damage the future influence exerted by a body akin to a royal college.”

The spokesman said that, at present, the Society has “an unfettered right”, provided in the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007, to set the level of registration and retention fees.

“Pharmacists and pharmacy contractors who pay these fees will be concerned that the Society does not exploit these powers,” he said.