Society sets out next steps for professional body
Pharmacists will be consulted on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s
work on a new professional body for pharmacy, according to a briefing
document for members, issued by the Society this week (PDF 260K).
Published in response to the Clarke Inquiry’s recommendations on
the future body, it sets out its plans for developing the organisation
in the lead-up to a January 2010 start-date, when the General Pharmaceutical
Council will also begin its work.
Society President Hemant Patel urged pharmacists to take an interest
in the transition process: “This is the time where pharmacists
can think about their ambitions and what they want from a professional
body.”
Mr Patel added that the Society’s Council was still in the process
of considering all of the recommendations in the Clarke report. He also
confirmed that a prospectus for the new body would be available for members
to consider by the end of the year. This work would be undertaken by
the transitional committee, he said, working with all the partners wishing
to be involved.
“Peace appears to have broken out in pharmacy,” Mr
Patel told the press at a briefing in London, “and organisations
are working together with the commitment to ensure that the new professional
body starts on a sound footing.”
He also said it was a chance “to say goodbye to the policeman role” that
the Society has had on account of its regulatory activities.
Jeremy Holmes, Chief Executive and Registrar at the Society, said: “We
want to make sure that this new professional body has the support of
the profession before it even starts so that we can look forward and
do this together, rather than worry about history and conflicting interests.”
He
added: “I think it’s very important that we have a professional
body that the great majority of pharmacists feel they can be part of.
It needs to combine a proposition for that great majority with recognition
of the leading edge of pharmacy specialist practice. It needs to do both
jobs.”
Mr Holmes said that, with publication of the recent pharmacy White Paper, “pharmacy
is now waking up to the fact that the opportunities are immense, and
if ever we needed a focused and relevant professional leadership body
that caught the imagination of the profession now is the moment we need
it”.
Speaking as a guest at the briefing, United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy
Association chairman Catherine Duggan said that many pharmacists pay “over
and above to be part of specialist groups already”, but added: “The
people I feel we need to work very strongly to attract are generalists
who work in community, or in any sector — generalists who may not
necessarily find a professional body, as it stands at the moment, too
attractive.”
Richard Cattell, Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists president, told The
Journal that, with only 18 months remaining to deliver a fully functional
professional leadership body, he would not want the consultation process
with members to introduce delays. He also suggested that the transitional
committee would need external expertise on financial matters and becoming
more member-facing. |
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