Regional Member for Scotland Report from Guild Council Meeting 8.2.07



Agenda for change
Consistency checking in England and Wales can only be described as inconsistent. It was suggested that some tweaks to the wording in the profiles might help reduce some of the dubiety encountered. What has happened in many trusts is that management have noted that pharmacy is high in band 8 posts compared with other disciplines. One argument used to defend this is that the spread of grades mirrors other professions, but since pharmacists start one band higher, i.e. band 6 as opposed to band 5, all the levels are one band different.

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Unsocial Hours
The implementation date is still officially April 1st 2007. However, as Amicus has to ballot members, it is likely to be delayed until 1st October. An interesting solution for residency schemes has been circulated

"Our Deputy Director of HR  was helpful in pointing out paragraph 2.30 of the A4C T&C's which allows a PERMANENT local agreement IF the on-call/out of hours service is required to be a resident service - most often the case in Haematology, Transfusion & Biochemistry.  We have had this checked by legal at Head Office and have therefore invoked our use so that we now have a permanent, annually reviewed local agreement for our OOH service. T&C's on this agreement are BETTER than A4C and Whitley.  

2.30 Some staff are required to be on the premises to provide emergency cover but are allowed to rest except for the times when they are required to carry out emergency work. Where employers consider this an essential arrangement to provide service cover, there should be an agreed local arrangement, at least equivalent to on-call payments, to recognise the type of cover provided."

Unsocial Hours payments have been set at 30% for 8pm-8am Monday to Friday and all day Saturday. Sunday attracts a 60% supplement. All these are at normal hourly rate - the band 6 cap has been removed. This is basically option 2 without the cap.

The removal of the band 6 cap is a major victory for GHP as we have been lobbying on this issue from the start and have been supported by Amicus in the fight.

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On-call
A group has been set up to look at this aspect of AfC. Dave Thornton is on the group representing GHP.

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Pay Review Body
It was noted that a meeting was to be held on 12th March at the RPSGB by the DoH Knowledge and Skills team. This would discuss how best pharmacy can be included in the KSF. If anyone has any competency frameworks that could be useful to the discussions, please let me have them before that date.

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Working Time Directive
Dave Thornton is to be asked to pull together an "idiots guide to the WTD". It was noted that the EU had taken the UK Government to court for not reminding employers of their duty to implement the WTD.

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TGWU merger
All members should have received their ballot paper. If you have not received on by 16th February, call Amicus on 0845 8504242.

The proposed merger was discussed at Council.  Whilst recognising that the Amicus NEC is recommending a "yes" vote we have significant concerns that the merger may disadvantage smaller professional groups like ours.  It may be difficult to make our voice heard in the new larger union.  We are also concerned that focussing on the merger may distract the union from the serious issues currently facing the health service.  

After much hard work Amicus has now firmly embedded the role of the professional groupings in the union structure and it is vital that this is not lost as it is benefitting the Guild and other groups in making the health sector, and thus the groups, stronger within the union.  

We believe that Guild members should take these factors into consideration when casting their vote. It is a free vote and members must decide for themselves how to vote from the arguments presented.  

Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the Guild NPC will remain committed  to working to ensure our voice is heard in the wider union.

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Professional Secretary
Council were informed of a bullying case where a middle grade pharmacist had sent a letter about another middle grade pharmacist to RPSGB without any discussion with the Chief Pharmacist. Once received by the RPSGB it will be investigated and there is no way to stop the process. The allegations were eventually thrown out by the Infringements Committee. The member had been fully supported throughout by GHP and Amicus and tribute was paid to the amount of effort put in by Barry Jones. However, the lesson to be learnt by members is that GHP should be involved at the earliest possible stage in the process and not left to the last minute. The first point of contact should be the local GHP or Amicus accredited rep. If their identity is not known, HR or the local Amicus Regional Office can supply details.

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RPSGB Professional Standards and Guidance Documents
GHP will be responding to the five documents issued by RPSGB on

  • pharmacist prescribers
  • pharmacists and technicians in positions of authority
  • patient consent
  • patient confidentiality and
  • sale and supply of medicines.

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ANC 2007 - 27-29 April 2007 - Brighton
The Conference mailing should be sent out soon to all members. If you do not receive one, please let me know as it may be that you are not tagged as a GHP member on the membership database.

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Section 60 order
The order now includes Scottish pharmacy technicians. As another amendment has to be approved by the Privy Council, this will delay registration by about 6 months. It is thought the statutory register will now open on 1st January 2008 and grandparenting allowed for the next two years.

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GHP Medals
The Gold and Silver Medals both go to Edinburgh this year. Dr Alistair M Millar has been awarded the Gold Medal and Mrs Margaret Dolan has been awarded the Silver Medal.

Colin Rodden
8 February 2007

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