The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 267 No 7156 p70
14 July 2001

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“Guide to the Society” articles

David Pruce (the Society’s professional development fellow), Steven Kayne (a member of the Society’s Scottish Executive) and Erica Barrie (secretary to the Welsh Executive) describe the way in which the Society works alongside a health care system that has been subjected to political devolution

Scotland

Wales

How the Society manages devolution

In considering pharmacy’s place in the National Health Service of the future, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has three NHS plans and three governments to deal with. The plans for England, Scotland and Wales have many similarities but also significant differences. Many individual elements of the plans are the same — for example, repeat dispensing features in all three — but the time scales and the way in which they are implemented are different. This allows the Society to develop the common elements separately from the implementation aspects.

The Society is developing standards and guidance suitable for use in all three countries while looking at how this guidance might be put into practice differently in England, Scotland and Wales. This may mean that time scales will need adjusting because something is needed earlier in one country than in the other two.

As a Britain-wide body, the Society does not want three different sets of policies and three different sets of standards for pharmacists to deal with. It does, however, need to differentiate clearly the work that can cover all three countries — such as regulatory frameworks, much of the education agenda, science and publishing — from the aspects that need to be different because it is dealing with different politicians with their own separate agendas.

Devolution has complicated life for the Society as a Britain-wide organisation. But, like most other organisations that cover Britain or the United Kingdom, it is adjusting to it and trying hard to get the balance right.

The Society in Scotland

Situated in Edinburgh’s New Town (a World Heritage Site), the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland (RPSiS) is administered by a secretary and deputy secretary and their support staff. Home to the Society in Scotland for over a century, 36 York Place is close to Scotland’s re-established Parliament in an area of the city populated by health care and professional bodies.

The professional staff support the Society’s Scottish Executive, which has 18 elected members, in fulfilling its functions as defined in the Society’s Byelaws. These include the implementation of policy, the advancement of the objects of the Society and the organisation and supervision of the local branches in Scotland. Crucial to this is working with the other pharmacy bodies, including the Scottish Pharmaceutical General Council, the Association of Scottish Trust Chief Pharmacists, the Scottish Specialists in Pharmaceutical Public Health and the nation’s two schools of pharmacy. The RPSiS has worked successfully to develop multidisciplinary links, as illustrated by the Society’s involvement in the Scottish School of Primary Care, which is situated on Society premises at 34 York Place.

Since devolution the RPSiS has been active in engaging the country’s new political framework. It has sought opportunities to promote pharmacy and be a part of the modernisation programme with considerable success. It has developed far beyond its original educational remit of 150 years ago and now operates in a political environment where there is considerably more public and parliamentary scrutiny of Scottish health policy than before devolution. In discussions with the Minister for Health and Community Care and her officials before publication of “Our nation’s health”, the National Health Service plan for Scotland, it stressed the importance of a strong role for pharmacy in improving the patient’s journey through the NHS in Scotland.

The Scottish government believes that pharmacists’ expertise in the safe and effective use of medicines should be developed at all health service levels to add efficiency to NHS processes. Central to this aim is the development of repeat dispensing schemes, comprehensive pharmaceutical care programmes and therapeutic drug monitoring.

Working closely with its parliamentary advisers the Society has embarked on an ambitious programme of building relationships with Members of the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Executive Health Department, other health professions and patient groups. Regular briefings and meetings with MSPs, attendance at party conferences and a parliamentary reception at the Society’s house have all helped raise the profession’s profile. In January the Society in Scotland arranged a dinner at the Palace of Holyroodhouse to mark the beginning of its 150th anniversary year and to bestow an honorary fellowship on the Princess Royal. The RPSiS and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers are now working together to establish ways in which pharmacists can identify and support carers in their largely unseen health care role.

The RPSiS supports the Society’s 12 Scottish branches by providing resource packs and topical papers to ensure that they can act as a link between pharmacists resident in Scotland, members of the Scottish Executive and staff at York Place. Branches are encouraged to serve as a local focus for professional and educational matters.

These are changing times for Scots. The Society in Scotland is meeting the demands of change for the benefit of the profession and the patients it serves.

The Society in Wales

The Society’s office in Cardiff is a few minutes’ walk from the National Assembly for Wales’s building in Cardiff Bay. Responsibility for all health and social care matters is devolved to the Assembly, with the lead taken by the Minister for Health and Social Services. The Health and Social Services Committee has cross-party membership, and the government of Wales is a coalition between Labour and the Liberal Democrats.  

The Welsh Executive works hard to promote pharmacy’s contribution to improving health in Wales, both to the Assembly’s elected members and officials, and by working closely with NHS Wales and its partner organisations in social and voluntary care.  

The two members of staff based in the Cardiff office, the Society’s secretary for Wales and her personal assistant, support the work of the Welsh Executive to implement the Society’s policies in Wales. The Welsh Executive consists of 12 members, elected from and by members whose registered addresses are in Wales.

The Executive developed its first strategic plan last year, and will meet again this year to discuss and update the priorities. To promote two-way communication with the membership, each Executive member is the “contact” for one of the 10 branches of the Society in Wales and tries to attend at least one meeting each year. In addition the chairman and vice-chairman, between them, aim to visit the 10 branches once a year.

The Executive is now invited to respond to a large number of consultations. In doing so, it not only draws on the experience of its members but also networks with pharmacists throughout Wales who contribute their expertise and knowledge of developments and initiatives. In addition, the Executive participates in consultation workshops, and in response to invitation, nominates pharmacists to be on advisory and working groups.

A key component of the work of the Executive is being proactive at the beginning of a process, to meet with those leading on the development of the health strategies for Wales. An example is the recognition achieved for pharmacy’s input to successful implementation of the strategy for promoting sexual health in Wales.  

Devolution offers enormous opportunities for pharmacy — the challenge is to realise the potential.