A Respectable Occupation: - University of Hertfordshire Research ...

Chapter 6
Conclusions
The apothecaries gave their assistants very little support when the National
Insurance Act was threatening their livelihoods. They were at best reactive
to the situation. They frequently delayed replying to requests or sidelined
them until they were forced to act. This contrasts with Penelope Hunting‘s
view that ―… the Society mounted a vigorous campaign to defend the
position of apothecaries‘ assistants.‖ 1 It is not clear why the apothecaries
should have taken this approach. They had a parliamentary agent who was
informing them of the proceedings in parliament and so it cannot be that
they were unaware of the dangers to their assistants. It may have been that
they considered that their conversion into general practitioners was
complete and they no longer needed or wished to be associated with their
assistants. Their attitude could have been encouraged by the capitation fee
offered them by Lloyd George that made them able to cast dispensing aside
and with it the connection with trade; a connection which had been the final
blemish on their professional standing.
The Pharmaceutical Society had, almost from its inception, sought to
extend its activities to include the dispensing of medical prescriptions. It is
no surprise that when Lloyd George made the separation of prescribing and
dispensing a principle of his National Insurance Act in 1911 and proposed to
transfer dispensing to the pharmacists, they were delighted to accept. One
1 Hunting, A History of the Society of Apothecaries, p. 229.
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