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Letters to the Editor
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Council election
Alliance Boots takeover at Lambeth?
From Mr N. Baumber, FRPharmS
With the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Council election looming, may
I remind pharmacists that the Society exists to represent their interests
and not those of organisations that want to wield power and influence
by claiming that they pay the membership fees of their pharmacy staff.
We have seen in the past year a frightening level of consolidation and commercial
influence in community pharmacy from the amalgamation of retail and wholesale
chains in the Alliance Boots organisation. Have we forgotten the advantage
taken of us so recently by partnership in the Pfizer Solus scheme, and the
damage caused by it to our distribution channels?
There are already two Alliance Boots pharmacists, Steve Churton and Jonathan
Buisson, on the Society’s Council, while Paul Bennett, also a senior
Alliance Boots employee, chairs the English Pharmacy Board.
In what one can only assume to be a deliberate tactical move, Mr Buisson has
chosen to stand not for Council but for the English National Board instead.
It seems to me that this paves the way for Nanette Kerr, a new Boots candidate,
to take a place on Council.
Might this give Boots undue political influence on the current Council and
boards if all four are elected? And might it attempt to bring this to bear
as the new professional body is shaped?
Noel Baumber
Grantham, Lincolnshire |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal