| • Retention fees
• Contracts
• Prescription charges
• Responsible pharmacist
• Community pharmacy (4)
• Emergency contraception (2)
• The Society (2)
• Drug addiction
Letters to the Editor
|
The Society
Is the Society’s structure affordable
From Miss M. Jobling, MRPharmS
I read with interest the recent job advertisements, including one for
a deputy registrar post with a “six figure salary” (PJ,
9 February 2008, pA26–A27). Members of the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society have had to endure the biggest increase of fees in the Society’s
history.
If the current obligations of the Society and its staffing structure
were unaffordable without such a large increase, how will a new leadership
body deal with this legacy when membership becomes voluntary? Would it
not be prudent to review the Society’s staffing structure and generous
salary packages on offer before 2010 is reached?
The Society seems to be encouraging a new transparency of working. So,
as a member, I would like to ask the Treasurer the following questions:
1. What is the current head count of six-figure-plus salaries at Lambeth?
2. How does this proportion compare with other similar membership fee-based
professional organisations?
3. What review of the management and staffing structure of the Society
took place before the Council decision to approve fee increases of 40
per cent?
4. Are there any future plans to limit recruitment and salaries in order
to attempt to make any structure that is left post-Clarke (and after
the establishment of the General Pharmaceutical Council) affordable through
voluntary membership?
Since six pharmacist Council member posts are up for election I am sure
these issues of transparency will inform the membership as to the stewardship
of the Society and its finances, including those who may wish to stand
for re-election.
Mary Jobling
Harrogate,
North Yorkshire
| |
ANDREW GUSH, Treasurer, Royal Pharmaceutic
Society, responds:
I agree that transparency and accountability
should be the cornerstones of any
credible organisation. The post referred to by your correspondent is
a position which has existed in the Society for many years and has become
vacant as a result of the retirement of the previous incumbent.
This
post of deputy registrar is essential if the Society is to continue
to discharge its regulatory responsibilities until the new General
Pharmaceutical
Council (GPhC) is established.
The details of salary bands for the Society executives are rightly
published every year in the Society’s annual review.
Before fees are set every year the Society’s structure and budgets are
reviewed and approved by the Resource Management Committee and Council. Please
be assured this is completed with a detailed level of scrutiny.
The Council is conscious of the challenges that the Society faces and is actively
planning its future structures in light of the transfer of its regulatory functions
to the GPhC. These future structures will focus on both relevance to members
and affordability. |
Is members’ money being spent on members?
From Dr D. M. McNaughton, MRPharmS
After suffering the indignity of a 40 per cent fee increase to support,
in part, the pensions of the officials of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society,
I note, with interest, the recent pull-out advertising bumf included
with the PJ.
We seem to be funding a glossy campaign from our
fees to encourage us to remain members of a Society that seems to have
little
regard for its membership.
This is in parallel with advertisements in a single issue of the PJ for
a new Director for England, professional support pharmacist for Scotland
and Deputy Registrar (combined salaries over £200,000 per annum
at a guess). As members we would surely be better placed looking at downsizing
the Society.
I am sure that the Treasurer has a good grasp of property values and
wonder how the numbers look if we sell off both English and Scottish
headquarters and move the reduced staff required in a voluntarily funded
Society to serviced offices.
I passed the Edinburgh headquarters for the Society this morning on my
way to provide pharmaceutical care in a small traditional pharmacy and
could see from the top deck of the bus the potential that this large
town house could achieve on the open and buoyant Edinburgh housing market.
I guess it must also have private parking facilities increasing its value
even more.
What is the statutory process for liquidation of these assets and share
of the proceeds to the membership?
David M. McNaughton
Edinburgh
| |
ANDREW GUSH, Treasurer, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, responds:
Dr McNaughton may be referring to the newsletter Your Society, which
has been developed
in response to requests for more regular and informative communication
between the Society and its members. It is produced largely in-house
with a high level of cost-efficiency.
The staff positions referred to reflect the current needs of the Society
as regulator and as a leadership body. The deputy registrar position
is one that has existed
for many years and filling this position is essential in enabling the Society
to continue to discharge its regulatory responsibilities during the transition
to the formation of the General Pharmaceutical Council.
The position of Director
for England is a reflection of the realities of the devolved responsibilities
for health that now exist in England, Wales and Scotland. This position merely
places England on an equal footing with Wales and Scotland.
The location and suitability of the Society’s buildings is, of course,
a legitimate question and one which will not be ignored once the GPhC is formed.
However, in the meantime the Lambeth and York Place buildings are fully occupied
by staff engaged in regulation, professional leadership and, of course, by the
Society’s highly successful publications activities. |
|
The
Pharmaceutical Journal