Clarke adds urgency to call for transitional committee to prepare new leadership body
It is “absolutely vital” that the transitional committee to oversee the preparation of the new professional leadership body, as recommended by the Clarke Inquiry, is set up as soon as possible, according to inquiry chairman Nigel Clarke.
Mr Clarke was speaking at the annual joint conference for the Guild of
Healthcare Pharmacists and the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association
last weekend.
Conference participants asked Mr Clarke for his opinion on the decision
made by the Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to consult further
with Society members on the findings of the Clarke Inquiry. Several participants
thought that this was a peculiar decision, since the inquiry itself was
a consultation with Society members.
“The vast majority of the recommendations should be acted upon,
as they are incontrovertible,” said Mr Clarke. However, he added
that there were some areas of the report that required further debate
before conclusions
could be arrived at.
Mr Clarke told The Journal that he believed the main items of
debate involved the creation of the committee for special interest groups
and
the representation arrangement for industrial pharmacy. He repeated that
communication with members was an essential component of the transitional
process.
He believes that this is best achieved by setting up a transitional
committee that is large enough to represent all areas of the profession,
and only seeking direct communication with members once formal proposals
have been drafted. For example, a proposal to amend the Royal Charter
would require a formal ballot, he said.
Dave Roberts, clinical director of pharmacy at Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust,
believes that the Guild and UKCPA should be given heavy representation
on the transitional committee.
“Both of those bodies are financially
viable, responsive to membership and have helped their members to develop
for many years,” he said. “They are the sorts of bodies that
I would like to see the new leadership body becoming a bigger and better
version of.”
A report of the conference will
be published in the June 2008 edition of Hospital Pharmacist.
AGM discussion A
discussion forum to consider findings from the Clarke Inquiry into
the future professional body will be held before
the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society’s annual general meeting on 21 May 2008.
Nigel Clarke, along with
Hemant
Patel, the Society’s President, and Jeremy Holmes, the Society’s
Chief Executive and Registrar, will answer questions at the forum, which will
take place from 18.45 to 20.00 at 1 Lambeth High Street, London SE1 7JN. |
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