My congratulations go out to all 11 PDA backed candidates for the English Pharmacy Board election. Standing under the “Stop Remote Supervision” banner all 11 candidates have been elected, a victory for the individual pharmacist over “Big Pharma”

Expectations will be high for the new board and the job of turning the Society from multiple controlled organisation to a truely pharmacist centered organisation will not be easy.

However, they will get my backing and support and I wish them every success in the coming months and years

Shaun Hockey B Pharm (Hons) MRPharmS
MD – PL-UK Recruitment Ltd

January 22nd is the deadline for voting in the national board elections.

This is, without doubt, the most important election in the 150 plus years since the Society was established. I know that pharmacists can be apathetic about these things because the Society has been seen to be ineffectual for individual pharmacist and too biased towards pharmacy owners, particularly the multiples. I would agree.

However we have an opportunity to make a difference, so please vote. Click on the link below

http://beta.pharmacyplb.com/about-us/national-pharmacy-boards.asp

Click on the link below to see progress made in the last 100 days towards the new PLB for pharmacy

I am conscious that locum pharmacists tend to miss events such as the Stakeholder Day that was held at RPSGD headquarters in London yesterday. As a result, I attended the meeting on your behalf and will attempt to pass on the key information i gathered in this three posts. This one will cover CPD and Local Practice Forums:

Presidents Welcome

Steve Churton gave an impassioned speech about the new PLB and about how the move to a devolved membership body and regulator marked the most important change to the profession of pharmacy in over 150 years. He explained that over the day he would try to give delegates a feel of the culture of the new PLB and the services that will be able to members..

He also mentioned that the name of the new body will be ……The Royal Pharmaceutical Society!!! Apparantly the members of the new body can decide to change post launch if they want to but a change of name would have meant more changes to the Royal Charter which could have delayed the launch which is due in April 2010.  A General Election called before May could delay it as the new body needs to be sanctioned in parliament.

CPD

One of the main advantages of the new body will be the support it will provide for CPD. The new PLB will not “police” CPD this will be done by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC). I was actually sat next to the lady who has set the criteria for CPD at the GPhC and she said that the CPD needs to be relevant to your practice and will only count at CPD if you have identified a particular need to improve either practice or knowledge. Simply attending lots of CPPE courses doesn’t constitute CPD.

As has been previous publised, pharmacists will need to submit nine pieces of CPD each year (Or when requested by the GPhC.) The nine pieces should be spread throughout the year and go though the process:

Reflection/Planning/Action/Evaluation

Pharmacist will have six weeks to submit CPD when requested.

The new PLB will support pharmacists with their CPD by offering the www.uptodate.org.uk website for recording CPD, They will also offer to review five CPD entries free of charge to members before they are submitted to the GPhC AS it has been identified that many members are worried at CPD requirements and how CPD should be recorded.

Local Practice Forums

You may have seen in the PJ lately articles about the New Local Practice Forums (LPF) these will replace branches and regions over the next two years. One in West Yorkshire has been particularly successful. These are very much seen as key to the success of the new RPSGB and the driving force behind delivery of the services for the new body.

There will be about forty LPF’s in England, five in Wales and I think seven in Scotland. The geographical spread of each will be controlled by each LPF’s but it is envisioned that they will be based around Schools of pharmacy or larger teaching hospitals.

Information of advisory services, virtual networks and myth busting to follow on Friday.

So Lloyds Pharmacy and Bupa have already have their interpretations of the RP regulations brought into question by the RPSGB (PJ Online article below)

http://www.pjonline.com/news/pda_claims_rp_rules_are_being_interpreted_unfairly

I guess that this was always going to happen with any new working practices but it will be interesting to see how the RPSGB respond. The problems have been highlighted by the PDA who suggest that the Society may have changed the RP guidelines in favour of the multiples. I hope that this was not done intentionally and that the multiples wouldn’t “place” people on the council to make sure their commercial interests are represented ahead of the professional interests of their employee pharmacists. Maybe I’m being niave  to think they wouldn’t as their main objective is to maximise shareholder (or owner) return. Linking this to the recent European Court Ruling

http://www.pjonline.com/forum/pharmacy_ownership_0

The PDA have shown that they are acting in the interest of the individual pharmacist. Is this an example of how a leopard never changes it’s spots and that the new PLB will still put bricks-and-mortar pharmacies ahead of flesh-and-blood pharmacist as it always seems to have done. I hope it isn’t because if it is, why should i join it?