Hospital Pharmacist
2007;14:108
April 2007

News summary

No hospital pharmacists stood for election to Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council

No hospital pharmacists put themselves forward for election to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Council. Six unreserved places for pharmacists were available and only six nominations were received, from pharmacists currently practising in community, primary care and industry.

The shortage of candidates means that Gerald Alexander (vice-president), John Jolley (treasurer) and John Gentle have been declared re-elected without a ballot. They are joined by new members Sue Kilby, from Total Healthcare Solutions, and Steve Churton and Cathryn Leask, both from Boots The Chemists. All will serve for three years from 17 May.

Although not currently working in a hospital setting, Mrs Kilby was a hospital pharmacist from 1976 to 1985, including being pharmacist in charge at Worthing Hospital, Sussex.

Current hospital experience on Council is provided by Colin Ranshaw, quality assurance and control pharmacist for Cardiff and the Vale NHS Trust. Mr Ranshaw was elected as member of Council for the constituency of Wales in 2005.

Mr Ranshaw commented that it is unfortunate than no hospital pharmacist stood for election, and suggested three reasons for this. First, being a smaller sector of the profession, hospital pharmacists may not believe that they would get enough votes to be elected. Second, they may not believe that the Society is meeting the needs of hospital pharmacists and therefore might not consider it relevant to them. Third, Mr Ranshaw suggested that time pressures may be a problem, with pharmacists viewing the commitment required by the Council to be unachievable for those working in the NHS.

Steve Acres, pharmacy service manager at University Hospitals of Leicester and vice-president of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK was elected (again without a ballot) to the reserved place on the Society’s Council for a pharmacy technician.