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Letters to the Editor
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The Society
A chance to influence new legislation
From Mr M. K. Astbury, MRPharmS
Beware! Following the explosion of new universities we will be pumping
out pharmacists by the bucket load. Beware! In the next couple of years
the regulations on supervision will be changed.
Some are pushing strongly for community pharmacies without pharmacists. When
I point out they are doing this against the will of most pharmacists they claim
they are doing this for the good of pharmacy and that the rank and file do
not always know what is good for them.
We need people on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council who will
see the trip wires and fight for pharmacists. I have been doing this and intend
to continue. I will endeavour to ensure that all pharmacists get a chance to
influence any new legislation.
Beware! Pharmacist unemployment is possible. If we end up with more pharmacists
than jobs the multiples will pay us as little as they can.
If a pharmacist has a professional disagreement with an employer it can be
hard to maintain professional integrity when he knows he can be replaced by
someone who will play ball.
An example in which coalface pharmacists have been effective is that, had I,
as Joe Bloggs’s pharmacist, not been on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
Council during the past few years, then pharmacy medicines would probably now
be on self-selection. This would have been disastrous for pharmacists and pharmacy.
The Council was advised “we must do this to comply with competition law”.
In conjunction with some other Council members of conviction we staved off
disaster.
At Council we should be using our influence to reduce sweat shop pharmacies
and reduce the workload heaped on pharmacists, in all sectors, while elevating
us in the public’s eye to GP status.
Martin Astbury
Community Pharmacist
Chester
Council Election Candidate
Why I am missing the happy days of the Society
From Mr J. M. Brunt, MRPharmS
I endorse wholeheartedly the sentiments of past president John
E. Balmford,
whom I knew from my days as a Pharmaceutical Society Council member some
25 years ago. I, too, wonder where the Society is heading and why I still
pay my retention fee.
Time was when pharmacists worked for pharmacists and made the decisions that
only pharmacists can make and the officers employed at Lambeth, all experts
in their field, had their fingers on the
pulse.
Today, pharmacists work in ever increasing numbers for grocers, which may enhance
the image of a supermarket but does little for the status of pharmacy.
When I hung up my self-employed boots at the age of 54 I refused to work for
these people and I cringe nowadays at what my brethren have to put up with.
During my time on the Council the profession enforced its code of ethics fairly
and standards were kept high, unlike today, when multiples appear to be powerful
enough to probe everything and do as they wish, often riding roughshod over
professional employees.
In the 1980s, some of us stood for Council because we saw the Society as a
somewhat out-of-touch ivory tower. We quickly learnt otherwise and I remember
standing up in the Council chamber one day talking about the reality of working
in a busy pharmacy where we are dispensing over 3,000 prescriptions a month.
Hopkin Maddock got to his feet and admonished me for being greedy for single
handedly supervising that volume. I hate to think what his feelings are now
when my local pharmacist is responsible for 17,000 prescriptions.
At my first Council finance committee meeting, when the agenda item was next
year’s retention fees, I recall Mr Balmford casually suggesting a nominal
figure which went through on
the nod.
That was how things used to be done. There were people on the staff who were
expert in different disciplines. They gave advice, but pharmacists made the
decisions.
Mike Brunt
Thetford,
Norfolk |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal