Karen Reay The meeting was addressed by Karen Reay, who replaces Mark Jones as the National Officer for Professional Policy and Practice. Her role still includes being the Director of the CPHVA. She answered various questions and spoke of her vision for the future of the professional groups in Amicus, and the forthcoming election processes.
Special Council Meeting This meeting elects the various Council office bearers. The meeting elected
Council Meeting
Terms & Conditions Committee All the work on the profiles was now finished. It was noted that a member had queried the disparity between the AHP and Pharmacist Consultant profiles. The former included band 9 and the latter did not. In practice, it seems very unlikely that an AHP will be able to get into band 9, and it was considered that it would not be possible for a pharmacist to do so, even if the profile allowed it.
Unsocial hours: The timetable cannot be shifted from October. Gail Cartmail is insisting that live testing of the proposals be carried out before implementation. Dave Miller is to produce a paper detailing preparations required to be in place before 1st October. In all the option calculations, it appears that pharmacists do poorly, although the prospective calculation always works out better than the retrospective one.
On-call: It now looks like there will be a review and it has been said that the on-call review has its own "cash envelope".
There has been reassurance that AfC is fully funded and that the overspend is due to hours reduction and holiday increases!
A newsletter is to be sent to members along with nomination papers for the new Council. This will include an advert seeking information from members on AfC assimilation and reviews.
There were a few reports of Trusts tinkering with bands after consistency checking had been carried out. This was usually because the Trust had decided they could not afford it. Some Trusts had dropped certain staff a band and others had assimilated and immediately asked for changes to job descriptions to downgraded and cause the post to drop a band! It was noted that pharmacy appeared to have more 8a posts than other professions and therefore was very visible.
PRB: PRB decisions should be reported this month and the evidence for 2007 is beginning to be compiled. This will be examined at the Healthcare Science OAC meeting in June.
Council Elections and Organisation The process details have been emailed to Jean Smith and the whole process should be finished by the end of April. A newsletter is to be sent to members along with nomination papers for the new Council. There will be an article will explain the process.
A draft set of byelaws has been circulated to Council and will be taken forward by the next Council.
An interim report covering the first three months of 2006 is to be prepared. This will identify outstanding issues for the new Council.
European Association of Hospital Pharmacy It was noted that another Board member had resigned. This left three vacancies out of seven posts. There is great difficulty filling these posts due to the size of their portfolio and the work involved. Great disappointment was expressed at the personality clashes which seem to dog the board.
Practice There was some discussion on the Health Care Commission Acute Hospital Portfolio and the DoH Health Bill.
RPSGB Return to work The RPSGB in its response to a Health Professions Council (HPC) consultation takes the view that health professionals who have spent more than one year out of practice should have to update their skills . This could kill off the opportunity for pharmacists to take a year out to travel the world. If you take a career break over five years , according to the recommendations of the RPSGB it will be a career end. Anyone in that position “will be required to complete a course approved by the HPC and to demonstrate against consistent measurable criteria that they are fit to practice”. Presumably this applies to both pharmacists and technicians. It is likely to increase workforce shortages by preventing the predominantly female workforce from taking a break to raise families before returning to work. They will in future be required to return to university instead!
For more information, see the Pharmaceutical Journal dated 3rd September 2005.
Colin Rodden 9.2.06