Hemant Patel stated the Royal Pharmaceutical Society is working to create a royal body for the pharmacy profession (PJ, 31 March, p369-370). Would he care to state, for the record, whether he expects or wants membership to be voluntary or compulsory?
Furthermore, why is the Society considering technicians be part of the proposed royal college of pharmacists? I do not subscribe to this political correctness nonsense. Ask any member of the public and they will tell you the pecking order is doctors, pharmacists and then technicians. The general view is that pharmacists are inferior to doctors, but superior to technicians.
I would go so far as to suggest most people do not view technicians as a profession. Most are not educated to degree level. They may have delusions of grandeur, but like it or not, that is the reality. So why on earth do pharmacists want to “marry” below their rank? Surely, they should seek allegiances above their rank. Not that doctors would ever accept them.
Instead of aspiring to greater things, why does the Society seek an alliance with the technicians? Technicians should never have been provided discounted “membership” and should now be told to fend for themselves, as only then can both camps promote their own interests.
Maybe the Society realises it does not have a future without conscription and is desperate to attract members, wherever they come from. I just wonder if they will next try to regulate counter assistants and pharmacy cleaners.
A Matalia, Coventry
