Malcolm Brown

Contributor

Tribute: Robert Shaw (1946–2021)

I was very sad when I heard about the death of Robert JS Shaw FRPharmS, of Norfolk. I first met Robert (Bob) in the late 1970s when we were working at St Nicholas (psychiatric) Hospital in Great Yarmouth. He was organising the quality testing of medicine samples contracted for regional purchase, …

Could complexity theory turn out to be a pristine prism for pharmacy?

Pharmacy matches a new social science perspective splendidly. Embrace it, urges sociologist and retired pharmacist Malcolm E. Brown, from Beccles, Suffolk.…

Are pharmacists losing their edge?

Tomorrow’s pharmacists will be clinical, dispensing will be by new “assistant pharmacists” and direct mail, and community pharmacists will receive a salary to deliver NHS “wellness” campaigns. So Dr Philip Brown sees in his crystal ball (PJ, 2 June, p749). One tactic for predi…

Pharmacist with a portfolio career

Pharmacists can contribute in an enormous variety of roles, which can take them to many different parts of the world, says Malcolm Brown.…

Message from the maze

The wording for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s proposed new Charter changes “promote the interests of members in their exercise of the profession of pharmacy” into “safeguard, maintain the honour and promote the effectiveness of the profession of pharmacy and to support the professional …

Why more pharmacists should become qualified persons in the industry

A typical salary for a new qualified person (QP) is £40,000 a year. Senior positions including QP status pay up to £80,000. These often exceed salaries of pharmacists in other spheres. Moreover, a demographic time bomb is ticking as more QPs are retiring than are being produced. This suggests that…

Might pharmacy technicians aspire to become professionals in their own right?

There is a possibility that pharmacy technicians will hold two seats on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Council. But will technicians aspire to become full professionals, independent of pharmacists? Is it a dream partnership, pharmacists providing expertise of administering a profession and…

Prescribing might not enhance their status as much as pharmacists hope it will

The anthropologist Linton defines status as individuals or groups possessing polar positions with reciprocal behaviour. For example, one position may be higher and one lower — as with two hens in a pecking order. Status is symbolic; class is material. Conspicuous, stylish consumption of wealth, or…

A certificate’s story

He viewed the certificate for the first time; the pristine parchment bearing a crest, signatures of officials and his name. It proclaimed him to be a pharmacist. It represented so much study and so much sweat. To keep his certificate pristine, he had it framed. The first time that he hung it upon th…

Medicine minders: tribes and sects

Within Great Britain, a strange tribe has been discovered: the medicine minders. Its division into sects particularly interests anthropologists. This preliminary report, by Malcolm Brown, may assist the compilation of a field guide.…