color="#008000" NPC Officer Elections Nominations made at the November 21st 2007 meeting were ratified as follows
Co-options for vacant NPC seats Yorkshire – still awaiting a nominee. Andrew Alldred to follow up Wales – Robert McArtney suggested a presidential letter to the 2 group secretaries would be helpful.
Co-option of EAHP board member It was confirmed that Tony West would be co-opted until the EAHP General Assembly in June, where a decision on the future structure of the EAHP Board would take place.
Practice and Ed & Dev away day in June It was agreed that half of the day would be spent with UKCPA discussing various issues of mutual interest, including the joint conference. It was also agreed that UKCPA could have a seat at the open GHP NPC meetings. UKCPA have invited a GHP representative to their National General Committee meetings. It was also agreed that we could share part of the meeting at the ANC with them.
Waste Medicines Project Gul Root is working on waste medicines in community pharmacy. Because of the difficulties in designing a meaningful project, Keith Ridge suggested that we collect examples of good practice in handling waste medicines in secondary care and feed these into Gul’s work. Examples from Yorkshire and West Midlands have been supplied. It was felt that further examples would be useful. It was noted that the Audit Office was concentrating on medicines prescribed and dispensed but not taken. Agreed to publicise in Guild Matters.
RPSGB Meeting Jeremy Holmes, RPSGB CE, had invited several hospital pharmacists including John Farrell (Royal Free), Dave Roberts (Cardiff), Norman Lannigan (Glasgow), Richard Cattell, and Ray Fitzpatrick (HPG). This was set up following a meeting he had in Cardiff with Dave Roberts about the RPSGB ‘support’ of hospital pharmacists. In a very good meeting he was told exactly what hospital pharmacy thought of the professional leadership of the RPSGB. In a comment on the number of splinter groups, it was noted that it was the professions response to no competent leadership from the RPSGB. The next meeting of the group is in March. Peter Noyce has been invited to attend so that the views are fed directly into PRLOG. It was noted with disappointment that at the press launch of the RPSGB submission to the Clarke Inquiry, there was mention of assimilation and takeover of other groups by the RPSGB. It was also noted that members of the PSNI had been balloted on merging with RPSGB. The result looks like they will remain independent.
“Guild Matters” and electronic newsletter Copy was required by the end of next week for “Guild Matters” and the next issue of the electronic newsletter should be emailed by the end of February.
GHP Gold and Silver Medals These were adjudicated over lunchtime. It was agreed that Robert McArtney be awarded the Gold Medal and Dave Roberts of Cardiff the Silver Medal. These would be presented at the ANC.
ANC 2008 The programme is nearly sorted out. It was confirmed there would be space for the GHP stand. It was also confirmed that APTUK members would get the same rates as GHP members. This had not appeared on last years flyer and APTUK members are not mentioned on the Profile website.
National Clinical Assessment Service meeting This service supports poorly performing doctors and now wants to support poorly performing pharmacists. It was agreed this might be helpful and prevent pharmacists being referred to the Fitness To Practice Committee.
RPSGB elections: NPC position There was a discussion on what GHP should be doing with regard to the RPSGB elections. If the RPSGB has a lot of what is wanted in a professional body, being inside the organisation trying to change it might be a more effective strategy. The main difficulty is workload. It demands about a day / week or about 37 days / year to be on RPSGB Council, not including the time taken to read the papers. It is easier for community pharmacists to stand, as locum fees are available for contractors. It was agreed to support Catherine Duggan of UKCPA to stand. It was important if we supported someone from GHP to stand, that they would be supported by the members. It was agreed that, rather than risk splitting the potential vote, we would support UKCPA this year with a GHP candidate standing next year. It was noted that with only 22 months until the GPhC starts working, 12 months is a large part of that. One technician and 6 pharmacist seats are up for election. Three of the latter seats are on a sectoral/regional basis.
Pre-registration graduates There is potential for a 5 year course of 4 years+1 year experience and this is likely to appear as a line in the English pharmacy white paper. GHP was asked to support it. It was agreed, but noted that the NHS had to get the workforce planning correct. Questions were raised as to the effect on the pre-registration graduate salary – would there be a bursary or would the fees be waived. It would be an extra years debt. It was reported that Plymouth University is already looking at setting up a School of Pharmacy with a different funding model.
Colin Rodden 7 February 2008