Hopefully you will have all received your annual report through the post if you did not then my advice in the covering letter - if you or a colleague receive Unite information but nothing from GHP - to contact the Unite regional/district office http://www.unitetheunion.org/regions.aspx to confirm you are listed either as job code 65 or 68 and ask for it to be changed if required will be taken. If you also contact GHP Recruitment Officer Martin.Pratt@tesco.net he will check that future lists are updated.
The work continued in April to finalise the details of the 6th Joint GHP/UKCPA Conference, which is the 50th Annual conference for GHP. There have been a number of mementoes provided at GHP conferences in the past and GHP Council have decided to mark this occasion with very practical items, including coffee mugs and lanyards, that will be useful after the conference and designed to continue to raise the profile of GHP in the pharmacy workplace. Unfortunately I personally will be unable to attend the official dinner on the Friday evening as I will coming back to the North East to celebrate an addition to my family 18 years ago to the day. I am grateful that Richard Cattell – Immediate Past President - will be on hand to lead the event and hopefully I can catch up with some colleagues on the Saturday.
The professional representation and lobbying on behalf of members also continued with our response to the DoH on its proposals to remove the 3 year rule -Recognition of pharmacist qualifications awarded in European Economic Area and Switzerland - Removing the '3 year rule' from new pharmacies. This is something we fully supported as a rule that was not fit for purpose as we had previously raised as potentially illegal and time has proven us correct. Perhaps less important we continue to respond to all the MHRA consultations on changes to product classifications including this month a Request to reclassify Crampex tablets from P to GSL. You may wonder why we respond to queries like product reclassifications. Active participation ensures that you remain on the consultation list for more important consultations. For example we note reports in the Chemist and Druggist that the MHRA are about to further consult on Section 64 and Section 85 of the Medicines Act, which relate to dispensing errors, although we have been informally consulted in advance. Our view I have outlined in previous months and I welcome similar views from Pharmacy Voice and the PDA about there being sufficient other legislation in place to deal with deliberate negligence and these sections should revert back to their original intention of protecting the public from deliberate adulteration not inadvertent dispensing errors hence their strict liability provisions.
Within the North East or the Border Group of GHP we still have an active Group infrastructure, which meant that this month I attend the Annual General Meeting. The maintenance of local groups often depends on a small group of people and particularly the individual who acts as the Group Secretary, which for the Border Group is John Mason. The presence of a local group allows us to arrange at short notice industrial meetings as recently in relation to on-call, professional meetings usually in conjunction with Royal Pharmaceutical Society colleagues and the occasional social event. This month I joined a group of local members at a Quiz evening in Newcastle organised by the regional member Wasim Baqir. Whilst I did not enjoy the quiz questions set by the Chair of Practice Graeme Richardson I totally enjoyed meeting colleagues and the refreshments available.
Finally I hope to continue this mix of industrial consultation, professional enhancement and social interaction on a national level when I hopefully will meet many colleagues in Nottingham from 20th-22nd May !
David Miller GHP President
April 2011