INTERVIEW but we need to keep the pressure on.


The UK Government is currently addressing the changes in legislation required to resolve the issue of how inadvertent dispensing errors are treated through its rebalancing of the Medicines Act 1968 work. The Dispensing Error Order is currently progressing its way through the parliamentary process.


JM: How is the Society evolving to keep one step ahead of the expectations placed on the profession?


AM: The Society is evolving in the sense that we are doing so much more to support our members to develop their clinical professional practice. We have well over a hundred support tools to help people’s professional development, backed by standards and guidance. For instance, we’re about to launch our revised hospital standards. We’ve now got a clear professional development journey from pre-foundation through Foundation towards Faculty, which is really powerful and all part of our becoming a Royal College that supports its members to be the best professionals they can possibly be. Our RPS roadmap for lifelong professional development will support members through the new GPhC revalidation process proposed from 2018.


I think there are challenges too. One is getting Supervision right. Another is getting the Responsible Pharmacist / Superintendent Regulations right and, of course, getting the Dispensing Error Order through. We led the piece of work in Scotland to develop the pharmacy quality roadshows, that were delivered in partnership with Community Pharmacy Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland, the Directors of Pharmacy and Healthcare Improvement Scotland. That wasn’t just an example of leadership and collaborative working, it also impressed the Rebalancing Board and helped reassure them, and politicians, that as a profession we have a quality assured system of error reporting and that errors are reported, acted on and learned from.


Supervision is a big one and the pharmacy profession needs to work together to get to a place where we don’t lose the good of the old system while we create something that is flexible enough to empower pharmacists’ future clinical and professional roles, and the new roles that are developing. Pharmacy technicians are really important in all


of this. We have to be clear on how they can fulfil their absolutely vital role, releasing pharmacists to meet their new clinical demands.


Over the years we have managed to grab some opportunities and there are still more to pursue. Never have the pressures on our profession been so great and the challenges been so big. But also, never have the opportunities been so great either. We need to really work to get this right. Especially for the young pharmacists coming through. We all have a moral, professional and indeed ethical responsibility to get the future right for them and that is a key priority for the RPS.


JM: In practical terms I see that you have taken forward your local engagement strategy. What do you see as the importance of local engagement?


AM: As the professional body, developing the profession for the members is our primary driver. Therefore, engaging with our members is the most important thing that we can do. First, to understand what our members actually want and, second, to enable our members to input into developing the work of their professional body. Looking at the structure of the RPS, I like turning the diagram on its head and putting members at the top, the country boards next, and then the Assembly at the bottom because the Assembly is the governance, fiduciary body. Our members are the organisation.


Local engagement and listening is at the heart of that. We were very conscious that the old model of five Local Practice Forums did present geographical challenges in terms of delivering events closer to members. Our new RPS Local sets out to address this by ensuring a presence in each NHS Board area across Scotland, including Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles, to extend our reach across all of Scotland. In addition, as well as having face-to-face events and meetings, we are developing our digital platforms using podcasts and webinars. Alongside that, it’s about the team and Board members getting out and about, meeting members where they are.


JM: You were interim CEO for four months earlier this year. What new perspective did that give you?


AM: As an Executive Director of RPS, I sit on the Executive Board, the group


‘I HAVE BEEN A COMMUNITY PHARMACIST FOR MY ENTIRE WORKING LIFE. GETTING THE FELLOWSHIP WAS A GREAT HONOUR, BUT IT WAS REALLY A REFLECTION OF THE GREAT EFFORTS OF SO MANY PEOPLE THAT I HAVE WORKED WITH OVER THE YEARS.’


that works with the CEO to deliver the plans and strategic direction of the Society. So I knew what was involved in the job. It was an interesting period. I didn’t approach it as a holding exercise – holding the fort – because there were things that I needed to do. I helped to drive forward the change of the Expert Science Panel into a Science and Research Board, giving research, academia and pharmaceutical science a much more important place in the Society. Also, supporting the Faculty Board to be the Faculty and Education Board.


A lot of my time was spent in the four months, which passed very quickly, sorting out some of the operational issues that I had identified needed to be addressed to make us more efficient. I would have liked for science and research to have been given more prominence at our national conference in Birmingham this year, but I’m glad that we are having a science and research Winter Summit on 5 December, which will showcase the latest innovations in science, research and education and how they impact across pharmacy and healthcare in general. After all, we are a science-based profession and our expertise comes absolutely from our science background. That has always been really important to me. So, while I am absolutely supportive of the development of the clinical role, of pharmacists delivering the best pharmaceutical care, we must keep the balance right because it is our science training that enables our clinical professional practice. And as we move to the more clinically focused degree, science is still the foundation of what we do.


JM: What was it like, after over 40 years in the profession, to be awarded an RPS Fellowship?


AM: I felt very proud. Somebody asked me if it was my proudest moment and I had to be honest and say it wasn’t. The fellowship, and all the other things I have been able to achieve, are not about me on my own. I am often happiest leading and working behind the scenes, making things happen. And, actually, my proudest moment was being a member of the contract negotiating team way back in the early 2000s that delivered that unique community pharmacy contract that was world-leading. This included the pharmaceutical public health service, the chronic medication service, the minor ailment service and now, building on these, it’s great to see the Inverclyde pilot that hopefully can be rolled out to the entire population. That would be absolutely fantastic because that would make community pharmacy the first port of call, not just a first of port of call, for all patients. And we achieve things like that by working as a profession with other healthcare professions, ensuring our rightful place within the community, primary and secondary care teams, within academia, within the universities, making sure that pharmacists can make that ever- increasing contribution to patient care.


I have been a community pharmacist for my entire working life. Getting the Fellowship was a great honour, but it was really a reflection of the great efforts of so many people that I have worked with over the years. It’s for them, in the same way that the Scottish Pharmacist CPS Lifetime Achievement award at the beginning of the year was about all those people who’ve been alongside me during a long career in pharmacy. It is about teamwork, because we achieve so much more when we all work together. •


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