Council agrees to postpone creation of emeritus awards until after separation of Society’s functions
The Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has agreed to postpone the creation of emeritus awards until is free from its current regulatory obligations.
At its meeting on the 14 February, the Council was asked whether it wished
to “ask the professional body taskforce to develop proposals for
an alumni/emeritus offering, as appropriate, as an integral part of the
wider work towards a new professional body”.
Presenting a paper to the Council, Christine Gray, head of corporate
governance, pointed out that the office had received many comments about
the provisions
concerning emeritus awards that had been gazetted last
autumn (PJ, 13 October 2007, p418). The proposed regulations had stated
that the Council might designate any former member who had been a member
for 50 years or more as an emeritus member in accordance with procedures
determined by the Council from time to time. Emeritus members and fellows
would not be allowed to used postnominal letters.
She reminded the Council that the relevant policy decisions on emeritus
members had been made in August 2006 before there had been any suggestion
that the Society would change its position as a regulator as well
as a professional body. She said that, given the adverse comments that
had been received from well known members of the profession, going ahead
with the awards as currently envisaged, at a time when the Society is
still restricted in what it can offer, night seem to give a mixed message
to
a high-profile, highly respected group
within the profession, which would see
to go against the Council’s original policy
intention.
She recommended to the Council that, in deciding to postpone development
of the awards, the Society should make it clear through the pharmacy
press that it had listened to members’ concerns and had accordingly
decided to rethink the awards in order to make them more meaningful and
worthwhile for the recipients. The Council agreed.
In a discussion after the vote, Gerald Alexander asked
the President and Chief Executive and Registrar to ask the Pharmacy Regulation
and
Leadership Oversight Group to look at the registered title of “pharmacist”.
He said that the General Pharmaceutical Council would possibly be well
advised to refer to “registered pharmacist” as a title. Therefore,
other pharmacists who were not registered could refer to themselves as
pharmacists.
The postnominals would sit with the professional body, and
people would be proud to have those postnominals for the whole period
of their existence, from the time they start practising until the time
they die. The registered title should be sitting in the Medicines Act.
Therefore a “registered pharmacist” would be somebody who
is actually practising, and a “pharmacist” would be someone
who has actually been a pharmacist and could still remain a pharmacist.
But the title needed to be altered in the Medicines Act.
Bob Michell commented: “We are dancing on the
head of a pin.” He
explained that he was a veterinary surgeon legally and undeniably. He
also used “MRCVS” correctly and legally. He explained that
if he wrote a prescription and someone wondered who he was, that person
could look him up in the register. There it says that he is a veterinary
surgeon, but his prescriptions may not be dispensed because he is on
the non-practising section of the register. Where is the mystery, where
is the confusion, he asked.
The President, Hemant Patel, replied that, in the past,
the regulatory role had tied past and present councils’ hands.
It was important to have as many pharmacists as members of the Society
but legal regulations
had meant that it was not possible to have everybody on board.
“We
are now seeking ways to try to make sure that everybody who wishes to
be a member of the Society and is properly trained to be a pharmacist
is included. That is the bottom line message,” he said.
Mrs Gray said that Society could look at what is possible for the future.
Letter to the editor p212 |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal