The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 279 No 7482 p667
15 December 2007

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Separating professional regulation and representation General Pharmaceutical Council and a royal college-type body for the Society

Professional body needs authoritative voice

Any future professional body for pharmacy must be vocal and speak on behalf of all pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists, the National Pharmacy Association believes.

“We would like [the professional body] to be an authoritative voice to champion the interests of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists,” Colette McCreedy, the NPA’s director of pharmacy practice, told the independent Clarke Inquiry panel at a recent evidence session. The NPA believes that the professional body could achieve this authoritative voice by harnessing the expertise of its members.

Mrs McCreedy also pointed out that, if the new professional body is formed from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s existing staff, using its assets, then the new body will owe a debt of gratitude to generations of members of the Society and should represent the whole profession, regardless of whether all pharmacists choose to join.

Inquiry chairman Nigel Clarke raised the prospect of overlap between the functions of the two bodies. However, Mrs McCreedy said that there is nothing that the NPA currently does that she believes should be handed over to the new professional body.

“But I think there are things that we don’t do very well because we do not have the time or the capacity,” she admitted. For example, she indicated that the NPA would like to get involved in some high-level practice issues, such as a recent call for evidence from the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia, but that there is only so much it can do.

“These things can’t be seen by the trade association as being the highest priority,” she explained.

The NPA believes that the new professional body should have a role in standard setting, accrediting providers of training courses for support staff and in providing support for continuing professional development and revalidation. But she warned that there would be competition in these areas from other organisations, including the NPA.

She explained that, as a voluntary organisation that has managed to achieve almost 100 per cent membership, the NPA has had to adopt a completely member-focused approach. “I think the [professional body] will have to adopt that same philosophy,” she said.

Mrs McCreedy suggested that the professional body could find a niche for itself in helping and supporting those practising in specialist areas, such as independent prescribers.