victorian Pharmacy - Royal Pharmaceutical Society

July/August 2010 | Issue 8 | ISSN 2042-4493
Pharmacy
Professional
e x c l u s i v e l y f o r m e m b e r s o f t h e R o y a l P h a r m a c e u t i c a l S o c i e t y
RPS Conference
All the latest highlights
News roundup
In praise of LPFs
Pharmacy
board updates
The latest from England,
Scotland and Wales
Professional Association/
Royal College Magazine 2010
Winner!
Victorian
Pharmacy
The Society’s starring TV role
poLITIcs • homeopathic and herbal guidance • travEL • gadgets • food

e d i t o r ’ s w o r d
We’re building
pharmacy’s
biggest
network,
to put you
in touch with
experts.
Like yourself.
When we connect with each other, share our knowledge, ideas and expertise we become
stronger, both individually and as a profession.
And that’s why thousands of pharmacists like you are starting to connect with each other, to create
the profession’s biggest network. A network where you can find out how others have dealt with
similar situations, get answers to your queries, discuss the latest issues, help develop policy and
provide input into consultations. The opportunities are endless.
You may feel isolated. You needn’t. Thousands of pharmacists sharing their expertise, locally,
nationally and internationally. That’s what we call a powerful network.
So, if you haven’t joined in yet, join in today. Go to www.rpharms.com/joinin
Published by
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain
1 Lambeth High Street
London SE1 7JN
Tel: 020 7735 9141
Fax: 020 7735 7629
www.rpsgb.org
Editor
Jeffrey Mills
jeff.mills@rpsgb.org
Contributors
Miranda Green
Matt Guarente
Sue Heady
Sam Lister
Michelle Nicholls
Richard Northedge
Alasdair Steven
Virginia Watson
Simon Wills
Susan Youssef
Art Editor
Nick Atkinson
Editor’s Advisory Panel
Steve Churton
Jeremy Holmes
Mike Keen
Sue Kilby
Colin Morrison
Umesh Patel
Patrick Stubbs
Advertising Sales
Square7Media
Tel: 020 3283 4056
Fax: 020 3283 4069
mark@square7media.co.uk
www.square7media.co.uk
Images
Photolibrary
Jason King
Lion TV
Printers
Precision Colour Printing Limited
Haldane, Halesford 1, Telford
Shropshire TF7 4QQ
Cover Image
Lion TV
Winner
Professional Association/
Royal College Magazine 2010
Pharmacy ancient and modern
Victorian healthcare, family trees and up-to-date practice
There is even more of a buzz than usual in the world of pharmacy this
month as the profession takes centre stage in a major four-part TV series
due to be screened by BBC 2, with possible repeats in the autumn.
The Victorian Pharmacy programmes were made not only with the Society’s
co-operation but also with the RPS providing some of the stars. Nick Barber,
professor of the Practice of Pharmacy at the University of London, and Briony
Hudson, Keeper of the Museum Collections, both feature prominently. You will
find our feature starting on page 20.
Meanwhile the countdown has started to the RPS Conference 2010, which
takes place on September 5 and 6 at London’s Imperial College, so we take
a look (page 26) at just some of the key sessions which will be attracting
pharmacists from near and far.
Now that the Learning and Development section has moved to the
Pharmaceutical Journal we focus instead in this July/August double issue on
some Practice Guidance on dealing with homeopathic and herbal preparations.
There are the usual updates from the English, Scottish and Welsh Pharmacy
Boards and Jeremy Holmes writes his last column as the Society’s Chief
Executive before he hands over to Helen Gordon ahead of the separation of the
professional and regulatory functions.
We take a look at how pharmacy works in Canada, with a visit to the beautiful
city of Vancouver and in the travel section we turn the spotlight on Copenhagen,
a city perhaps best known for designers such as Arne Jacobsen, spectacular open
sandwiches, the old harbour and the Tivoli pleasure gardens.
If you have ever wondered how to go about exploring your family tree we
have some answers in a special feature starting on page 46 and we talk to a new
British watch company which is aiming to produce what it calls “the cheapest
expensive watch in the world”.
As the weather starts to improve and the sun makes the odd appearance we
turn over the Transport pages to stylish convertible cars which won’t break the
bank and on the Arts page we explore the mysterious mind of Agatha Christie
who, it is said, studied pharmacy in her native Torquay during the First World
War, during which time she learned much that she used in her later novels.
As always I hope you enjoy this packed issue of Pharmacy Professional, the
magazine only for members of the Society.
Royal Pharmaceutical Society
RPSGB is working with the profession to build your new Society
Pharmacy Professional ISSN 2042-4493
© The Royal Pharmaceutical Society 2010. While every effort has been made to ensure
that the information is correct, neither the editor nor publisher can be held responsible for
any inadvertent inaccuracies or omissions. Pharmacy Professional is protected by copyright
and nothing may be reprinted without written permission. Manuscripts, transparencies and
illustrations are submitted on the understanding that no liability is incurred for safe custody.
Jeffrey Mills, Editor
Support
Recognise
Lead
Develop
Network
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
1

20
Contents
July/August 2010
26 34
52
39
professionalLIFE
05 News Roundup Prescription charges reform needed
09 Media View Sam Lister, Health Editor of The Times
10 Comment The CEO speaks out
12 A View From... The English, Scottish & Welsh Boards
18 Political Update Charles Willis Reports
19 Business Practice Richard Northedge on Pharmacy
20 Victorian Pharmacy A step back in time
26 RPS Conference 2010 All the latest
30 Association of Women Pharmacists Conference report
33 Practice Guidance Homeopathy and herbal preparations
34 Vancouver A look at Canadian pharmacy
lifestyle
39 Travel High style in Copenhagen
44 Fashion Colours
45 Personal Finance Taxing problem
solving
46 Your Family Tree How to trace it
48 Watches A new British company
50 Gadgets Latest on the shelves
51 Health food Summer feasts in the
mountains
52 Transport Low cost drop tops
55 The Arts Alasdair Stevens on Agatha
Christie
56 Offers The Lugger in Cornwall
56 Prize Crossword Win leading
reference books
50
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
3

Cash Withdrawals
professionallife
n e w s r o u n d u p
“ Welcome to the largest
free-to-use * cash network
in the country”
Free Cash withdrawals
at the Post Office ®
• You can bank on Post Offi ce ®
with access to your cash at more
than 1,800 free-to-use ATMs * .
• You can also withdraw cash free
of charge over the counter at any
Post Offi ce ® branch * .
• Over one million free cash
withdrawals are made every day
at the Post Offi ce ® .
To find your nearest free-to-use ATM and participating banks * , visit postoffice.co.uk/atmlocator
Prescription charges reform needed
Government action awaited after Gilmore Report
Support for the reform of
prescription charges following the
publication of the Gilmore Report in
May has come from English Pharmacy Board
Chair Lindsey Gilpin.
“This report brings clarity and insight to an
aspect of healthcare that we strongly believe
requires reform. This single move will make a
difference to the lives of millions of people,”
she says.
“No patient should be faced with an
impediment, such as cost, when trying to
access a medicine for a long term condition.
“Every day pharmacists are asked to advise
patients who are unable to afford the full
costs of their prescription on which item can
be discarded. The patient’s decision not to
take medicines for a long-term condition can
affect their health outcome and long term
can cost the NHS more, through for example,
increased hospital admissions because of
poorly controlled asthma.
“The proposed system of criteria for
defining long term conditions is a step
forward from the current restrictive list of
conditions. Under this new system no patient
will be excluded from exemption from
RoyAL Pharmaceutical Society (rpS)
Support is the newly-announced
name of the old-style rpSGB
Information and Advisory Service (IAS).
rpS support aims to be the first port of
call for all members of the professional body,
providing key information and advice to support
their day to day practice, and assist them with
their professional, legal and ethical dilemmas.
“We will ensure that all members
contacting us with a query are guided
prescription charges because their condition is
not included in an arbitrary list,” Lindsey says.
“The Society would like to work with
Government to ensure a consistency of
approach across England through the
development of clear guidance.
“The proposed implementation of this
policy, that includes changes to way patients
obtain prescription payment certificates,
requires analysis to see if the costs of
through the relevant professional and legal
information and issues they must consider,
and we will tailor support for them to make
their own professional decisions within their
area of practice,” says the Society’s Head of
Professional Support, Ruth Wakeman.
“In addition, the service will proactively
provide members with professional guidance
and resources to support them with their
professional practice. We will also support
members contacting us with queries regarding
administration now outweigh revenue from
taxes collected. The Society would be keen
to ensure that input from pharmacists is
considered when looking at the costs of this
new model.” n
The report into exemptions from
prescription charges, which came out on
May 28, can be seen at: http://www.dh.gov.
uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/
PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_116366.
New name for members’ support
Providing key information and advice for members
Department of Health building, London
CPD, career development, return to practice,
the website, virtual networks and local practice
forums (LPFs),” she says.
The new name reflects the fact that,
following demerger, the rpS Support service
will be available only to members of the
professional body. References to IAS on the
website etc will gradually be replaced.
rpS Support can be contacted on 0207
572 2302 or support@rpsgb.org or via the
website. n
ATMs are owned and operated by Bank of Ireland
* Applies only to Bank of Ireland ATMs located in Post Offi ce ® branches, and selected banks only. Post Offi ce and the Post Offi ce logo are registered trade marks of Post Offi ce Limited. Some card providers may charge
for use of Bank of Ireland ATMs located in Post Offi ce ® branches. Can be used by all major credit card/debit cards. Registered offi ce 148 Old Street, London, EC1V 9HQ.
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
5

n e w s r o u n d u p
Virtual networking…. How it has helped me
I am a very busy community pharmacist working for an out of
hours pharmacy providing a large range of enhanced service.
Sheffield LPC Secretary James Wood praises virtual LPFs
My time is precious to
me and I work shifts
so finding the time
to attend face to face meetings is
difficult for me. I am committed
to my work and want to continue
to develop professionally. I am
also the Secretary of the Local LPC
and that means that my time is
even more precious as I have so
much to fit into my busy week
and aside from that I like to spend
quality time with my family and
friends and even making time
for my hobbies, one of which is
walking in the Lake District.
I am really excited about the
latest development of a virtual
LPF, it will allow me to post events
about my local LPF in Sheffield.
If I need to find another local
pharmacy organisation I can
quickly and easily be signposted
to our pharmacy sites. On top
of that the web enables me to
submit questions related to my
area of practice directly to the
experts at the Society who work
in rpS Support.
As member of the face-book
generation, and regular twitter
user, I find it much easier to drop
pharmacy colleagues an email
to get feedback or help to solve
one of the problems I encounter
working at the forefront of
community pharmacy. I can easily
get innovative solutions and the
opportunity to share best practice
with others. It is instant… I don’t
need to wait around for an answer
or to find out what is happening in
pharmacy in Sheffield.
I look forward to being able
to start up discussions with
my colleagues on matters of
topical interest like supervision
and workplace pressures. The
e-LPF sites include contact details
for the steering group so that
members who are interesting in
getting involved with the LPF have
someone they can contact. LPFs
are increasingly being seen as a
member benefit and the benefit to
me is that I can access information,
at a time of more choosing and at
a place that suits me (my armchair
or home desk) or on the move
from my iPhone or laptop.
I feel that the use of the
internet as a tool will help me
to feel supported and will help
to reduce workplace pressures
for me as an increasingly busy
community pharmacist.
It is such an exciting time for
members as the profession and
the organisations are changing. I
welcome the Society’s attempts to
do things differently. For me, this
is another example of the Society
responding to member needs, the
Branch network was not meeting
the needs of all members and this
give us other ways of networking
to ensure that we stay in touch
and up-to-date.
These virtual sites provide an
ideal means of contacting and
sharing information with other
pharmacists both locally and
across the UK on any pharmacy
related subject. They provide a
collaborative forum for like minded
pharmacists to seek guidance on
best practice, share views on recent
news and events and discuss topics
with a wide range of users from
all backgrounds of the profession.
They are fully accessible 24/7. They
enable pharmacists to link up to
other LPFs from other regions of
the country.
The main aims and objectives
of having a virtual network for
each LPF are as follows:
• providing a common and
secure space accessible 24/7 for
members to share and network
with each other
• An area where pharmacy news
items can be highlighted to
members quickly and easily
• Events and meetings can
be diarised in advance for
better planning to gain better
attendance
• Discussion topics on any
subject can be raised and aired
professionally
• Seek advice and guidance
on best practice from other
pharmacists on any subject
• Get help and advice on CPD
and mentoring from other
pharmacists
• Share and download documents
with each other
This will give members more
choice about the networking
options available to them.
Go on give it a go, post
something on your LPFs virtual
area today! n
James Wood joined the RPSGB
register only in 2005, but already
he has been an LPC secretary, a
company director and a regular
on local radio, all on top of his day
job dispensing and delivering an
impressive array of health services.
Success for Black Country LPF
Embracing new Local Practice Forum model
The Black Country LPF (previously the
Walsall & Wolverhampton, Dudley
& Stourbridge branches of the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain) have
embraced the new Local Practice Forum
model being rolled out to Society members
by undertaking a number of exciting
initiatives aimed at providing support for local
pharmacists across the sectors.
With a strong steering group taking the
activity forward, the LPF is offering services and
events markedly different from previous branch
activity, demonstrating that the Local Practice
Forum model is working effectively for members.
The Black Country LPF has so
far held several events including:
18th May – Welcome to your LPF – this
provided the opportunity to:
• tour the Pharmacy department of the
University of Wolverhampton (right)
• meet with potential mentors and establish a
relationship with mentees
• receive one-to-one guidance in completing
online CPD records
8th June – Visit to Atlantic House (Dudley
Drug Project) (http://www.cri.org.uk/
project/356) an opportunity to experience this
interesting project in the West Midlands as
well as an LPF steering group meeting to plan
further events for later this year.
July event – the opportunity to consult with
key stakeholders in the pharmacy profession
New LPF launched
through a series of focus group meetings
to explore in more detail the merits and
practicalities of revalidation.
Now more so than ever the Black Country
LPF will provide the opportunity to influence
the English Pharmacy Board through their
relationship with John Gentle, EPB member.
Members are being encouraged to give their
views at LPF events which can be fed back to
the EPB either via John Gentle or Lianne Denton
LPF Facilitator (lianne.denton@rpsgb.org).
“Both Lianne and I look forward to helping
this LPF benefitting Pharmacists in the Black
Country area. We are both confident that
this will develop into an organisation that be
a positive influence on the English board and
help local Pharmacists in all sorts of ways,” says
John Gentle.
The Black Country LPF has made some
fantastic progress in the past few months since
deciding to close the branches, and provides an
excellent model for other emerging LPFs in the
West Midlands and across GB. n
You can access the LPF homepage at
http://groups.rpharms.com/_forum/lpf_
overview.asp?FID=424&title=Black Country
Key LPF contacts:
Lianne Denton lianne.denton@rpsgb.org
LPF Lead – Anne Noott a.noott@wlv.ac.uk
LPF deputy leads – Nazmeen Khideja
n.khideja@nhs.net
Sandeep Tiwana sandeep.tiwana@dgoh.nhs.uk
Local Practice Forum Facilitator Fareena Siddiqi reports
The East of England LPF has successfully
been formed by the merging of the
Teesside, Durham and Sunderland
branch. This LPF now has its own transitional
committee in place and is beginning to
develop work streams.
The new LPF will offer the best of the old
local branch function and a lot more. By
working really closely with the other pharmacy
stakeholders in our area we will offer help
and support with CPD and revalidation, as
well as educational training and fellowship for
members.
The local branch has strong established links
at all levels with the University of Sunderland
Pharmacy Department, the LPCs and other
key stakeholders. We have the opportunity to
mould something really special to meet the
needs of our members.
“We recognise that some local branches
worked really well in the past, but not all did.
LPFs are the future, and we are in a unique
position to build something very special in
the North East of England – because we
have strong links with other local pharmacy
organisations,” says David Carter, chairman of
the transitional LPF committee in the NE1 area.
“A transitional committee has been formed
to begin the evolution process from the three
branches in our area (Teesside, Durham and
Sunderland) into one LPF – it consists of
representatives from the three local branches
and other key stakeholders, including students
and staff from the University of Sunderland,
local NHS organisations and LPCs.
“Work streams have been set up to develop
services and we hope to see outputs soon
from the new LPF. The local branches have
agreed to condense assets into the new LPF
and once this is complete, there will be a
formal AGM of the LPF and new officers will
be elected to move things forward.” n
6 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
7

n e w s r o u n d u p
m e d i a v i e w
Bringing together pharmacists
Shilpa Gohil talks of her passion for the profession
My aspiration is that the Professional
Leadership Body brings together
pharmacists from all sectors,
backgrounds and areas and strengthens
the voice of pharmacists.” So says senior
pharmacist and English Pharmacy Board
member Shilpa Gohil.
“Now that the regulatory function will
be the GPhC’s role, the PLB can focus on
members. The Society now has to show
leadership that is visionary and which helps
with the ambition of pharmacy to be confident
and competent and to have a strong voice,”
she adds.
Shilpa, who is also a member of the RPS
Assembly, is currently the Chief Pharmacist
for Masters Pharmaceuticals where she is
responsible for managing regulatory affairs for
the business.
“I have to oversee all regulatory work as the
Responsible Person and part of that is to ensure
that the Quality Assurance aspect is taken
care of. We are ISO 9001:2008 certified and I
manage the quality management. I implement
the training for all personnel.
“Masters has a strong reputation worldwide
for its Named Patient Supply programme,
which allows individuals access to discontinued
products, orphan drugs and medicines under
clinical investigation. Another key area of the
business is the ability to source comparator
drugs or stage II and stage III clinical trials.
“We have an NHS contract online pharmacy
called Masters Direct Pharmacy, as part of the
business of which I am the Superintendent
Pharmacist. We have a team of five people
who help with the management of the
pharmacy,” she says.
Shilpa started her pharmacy career when she
enrolled at the School of Pharmacy, University
of Brighton in 1992. “I was an international
student from Kenya and it was an amazing
experience,” she says. “After graduation I
decided to continue by completing my preregistration
with a small independent group
called Dallas the Chemist.
“My idea was to return home to Kenya and
join my father in his manufacturing business
and make cosmetics but my path was going to
change as I met Kirit Patel from the Day Lewis
Chemist Group who offered me a pharmacist
Visionary Shilpa Gohil raising the profile of pharmacy
role at his branch in Sevenoaks in Kent. I never
looked back and got plenty of experience
managing Branches in Kent.
“My passion for pharmacy was awakened
and I decided to undertake a part-time
postgraduate certificate in community
pharmacy from the University of Portsmouth,
as I wanted to work with PCTs. This led to
an MSc in Community Pharmacy four years
down the road! My MSc thesis was on Minor
Ailment Schemes and giving patients access
to self-care; I found this engaging and this led
to my working with the Camden and Islington
PCT as a pharmacist facilitator for two years as
well as locum.
“The NHS Agenda for Change brought
about many changes and this led me to
another avenue and I decided to explore
pharmacy in Australia. I spent three months
working as a pharmacist in the Blue Mountains,
Sydney. After travelling around Australia
I returned to England and continued as a
locum”, Shilpa says.
Coming right up to date, she started
working for Masters in 2008 as the business
development pharmacist. Now she is the Chief
Pharmacist.
Outside her main work, Shilpa has also
become heavily involved in raising the profile of
pharmacy as the Secretary of Chiltern Region,
a very active regional branch which is absorbed
into the LPF structure now as a strong lobbying
group at Westminster.
“It is a great experience to organise the
parliamentary conferences for pharmacist
members to debate with their MPs. I have been
actively involved in organising them for the
last three years and we had a real success last
year with the decriminalising error campaign,”
she says. This year’s regional parliamentary
conference has been postponed until later in
the year due to the General Election.
“My local branch, Harrow and Hillingdon,
has now evolved into the London North West
LPF and we have a really vibrant group of
member pharmacists. We have at least 10
meetings a year and get a good turnout of at
least 250 pharmacists. I am confident that this
energy will be seen in the LPF,” she says.
Outside her very busy li8fe in pharmacy,
Shilpa lists her hobbies as scuba diving,
mountaineering, travelling and art. “When I
am in Kenya I spend my time watching game
and going on safaris. While in the UK I like to
do youth community work. I am a life coach
so crew with teams who support personal
development speakers,” says Shilpa. n
Shilpa Gohil’s professional profile
1996 BSc (Hons) in Pharmacy from University of Brighton
1997 Member of RPSGB
1997-2002 Pharmacy Manager at Day Lewis Chemist Branches
1999-2000 Postgraduate Certificate in Community Pharmacy, University of Portsmouth
2000-2001 Postgraduate Diploma in Community Pharmacy, University of Portsmouth
2001-2003 MSc in Community Pharmacy, University of Portsmouth
2002-2004 Pharmacist facilitator for Camden and Islington PCT Minor Ailments Scheme
and Webstar Health
2002-2007 Community pharmacy locum
2006-2007 Pharmacist in Sydney, Australia for three months
2008-present Chief Pharmacist, Masters Pharmaceuticals
Pharmacy’s future and some winning formulas
Sam Lister on the annual public health awards and more
Some ideas are so
sensible, inspired and
easy to implement that
you wonder why the world
hasn’t been doing them for
decades.
A glimpse of the pharmacy
future was offered at the Chief
Medical Officer’s annual
public health awards last
month, where community
projects were celebrated for
their transformative impact on
pressing health issues around
the country. The three winners
were a fitting testament to the
work of Sir Liam Donaldson,
who stepped down as Cmo at
the end of May after a dozen
years tackling the scourges of
public health and championing
overlooked causes. ‘Food
Dudes’ has succeeded in making
eating greens a schoolchild’s
badge of honour, helping
address Wolverhampton’s rising
rates of obesity. ‘StreetGames’
has got the young in deprived
communities around England
and Wales dancing, cycling and
playing sport via a network of
mentors. And ‘Pharmacy Fix’,
an Isle of Wight project, is
bringing hepatitis vaccinations
to the ‘hard to reach’ patients,
such as injecting drug users,
through community pharmacists.
Opportunity
Worthy winners all, but I found
the concept of Pharmacy Fix
particularly absorbing. It had
started out as a service based on
training pharmacists to screen for
hepatitis B and C, counsel and
offer vaccination against hep B.
It was targeting injecting drug
users – a group at particular risk
Sam Lister, Health Editor, The Times
of blood borne virus infections
who had defied previous attempts
at outreach. The idea was as
simple as it was effective;
administer the healthcare in
conjunction with methadone
pick-up. The drug-users turned
up in numbers, presenting
pharmacists with the opportunity
to talk through their problems.
The plan now
is to bring
pharmacists
into the Isle
of Wight’s
childhood
immunisation
programme
As Kevin Noble, the
community pharmacy lead at
the island’s primary care trust,
told the audience, the model
was so effective that organisers
were easily persuaded to extend
it. HIV and syphilis testing
came next, then the network’s
participation in two broader
vaccination campaigns –
seasonal flu and swine flu. In the
case of seasonal flu, pharmacy
access proved convenient
for nine-to-five workers who
couldn’t get to their GP. For
the H1N1 jabs, the pharmacies
were invaluable at relieving
pressure on general practices
trying to ensure all under
fives were covered. Take-up
figures confirmed the project’s
achievement at reaching those
who weren’t bothering before:
871 vaccinations at pharmacies
and no decline in GP service
provision.
The plan now is to bring
pharmacists into the Isle of
Wight’s childhood immunisation
programme. The concept was
not only food for thought for
those at the awards dinner,
where Pharmacy Fix picked up
the Sir George Godber silver
medal. As I was leaving, one
senior member of the judging
panel disclosed that he had been
tasked with carrying out an
assessment of the practicalities
of the scheme, and its training
requirements, at a national level.
Cmo or not, you can bet Sir
Liam, who introduced the public
health awards to recognise
excellence and encourage its
wider take-up, will help bend
the right ears to promote such
success throughout the sector.
Outdated and arbitrary
On the subject of medical
knights of the realm, a
recent addition to the ranks
could be forgiven for feeling
aggrieved about the treatment
of his long-awaited review of
prescription charges. Sir Ian
Gilmore was a mere professor
when he submitted his report,
commissioned by Gordon
Brown’s government, last
November. Seven months later,
it has finally seen the light
of day. Its conclusions might
suggest why Labour was so
sluggish in publishing.
The current system is
described as “outdated
and arbitrary” in the way
it exempts some long-term
conditions from charges and
not others (such as arthritis
and depression). All patients
with long-term conditions
lasting at least six months
should get free prescriptions,
with the exemption remaining
in place for three years, Sir
Ian concludes. The report
observes that more than 15
million people have at least one
long-term condition. Sir Ian
goes further, suggesting that the
Government should consider
scrapping the system entirely, in
keeping with moves in Wales,
Northern Ireland and soon-to-be
Scotland. As discussed in last
month’s column, evidence from
one recent prescribing study
– comparing free Wales with
charging North-east of England
– suggests ending charges would
not prompt a run on pharmacy
store cupboards.
The much-needed £500m
a year generated by English
charges might go some way to
explaining ministerial reticence,
with a decision now put off until
at least the next spending review.
But when it finally comes, by
the autumn at the earliest, there
should be only one outcome – in
keeping with an NHS that aspires
to the principle of being free at
the point of use, not a bunch of
aggravating anomalies. n
l Sam Lister is Health Editor
of The Times. An award-winning
former health correspondent
and news editor, he has covered
the NHS and medical workforce
through reformation and revolt
and groundbreaking advances
in clinical practice and disease
control.
8 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
9

c o m m e n t
Breaking the Ties
Jeremy Holmes, CEO
With your
support
we can build
our future.
When I joined the Society almost three
years ago a few eyebrows were
raised. That was partly because I wasn’t
a pharmacist, but also because I didn’t
routinely wear a tie.
Not only was it not my habit, I also
felt not wearing a tie was a small signal
of the practicality and energy which the
organisation needed. Maybe some of that
has rubbed off. Reading Xrayser in Chemist
& Druggist on May 29, there was a genuine
sense of enthusiasm for the new Society
in the context of the other big changes
happening in pharmacy – “for those of us
who remember PIANA (Pharmacy In A New
Age) this is that new age!”
I agree. We are poised to launch a
professional body that is clearly focussed on
promoting and representing the professional
interests of its members. Regular research
amongst our members tells us the Society is
seen as more approachable, more proactive,
more supportive, more credible, and more
effective at communicating than it was a
year ago. That’s a tremendous credit to the
team. Which is not to say there isn’t more
to be done, but we really are ready for the
“new age”.
Energy and commitment
The separation of the Society’s regulatory
and professional functions is now absolutely
clear; the two roles of Registrar and Chief
Executive are no longer tied together. From
this month (July) Duncan Rudkin is Registrar,
in preparation for the transfer of regulation
to the General Pharmaceutical Council
(targeted for September). At the same time,
Helen Gordon takes over as Chief Executive
to lead the new Society as a dedicated
professional leadership body
I’m sure Helen will benefit from the
fantastic support that the staff, Council
and Boards of the Society have provided to
me, and from the energy and commitment
of the wider profession – all of which I am
enormously grateful for.
She is taking over as Captain of a spaceship
that’s already on the launch pad. When lift-off
happens, the launch gantry will fall away and
we will have broken our ties to regulation.
It may not be rocket science, but the
count-down has started and it’s going to be
great. Bon voyage! n
With our
support
you can
build yours.
We asked you, our members, what support you needed from your professional body.
You told us. We listened. We’ve changed.
Your new Society will provide confidential support and expert advice; helping you with your
professional queries; empowering you to make your own professional decisions; supporting you and
your professional development – so you feel more informed and more confident in your role.
Whether you’re just starting out on your career, returning after a break, looking to change sectors
or seeking support for your next move – we’re here to help you.
Help us to help you – as a member of your new professional leadership body, the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society.
Our support service is available now on 020 7572 2302, by email: support@rpsgb.org,
or via our website.
www.rpharms.com/support
Royal Pharmaceutical Society
RPSGB is working with the profession to build your new Society
10 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
Support Recognise Lead Develop Network

T h e V i e w f r o m e n g l a n d
Commissioning isn’t working for
pharmacists. Service redesign needs
input from pharmacists but this is far
from universal and contracting processes can
be laborious. Training duplication, because
pharmacists work across PCT boundaries,
makes life difficult for a mobile workforce.
We know that the new Government has
signaled a change in commissioning in
England. The new health White Paper will
describe the future of the NHS and it seems
likely the Health Service will be overseen by
an independent NHS Board.
Practice-Based Commissioning is likely
to be re-named “GP commissioning”, which
is unhelpful when so many other health
professions are involved with the provision
and design of services.
There is likely to be a new operating
framework to describe what “GP
commissioning” will look like and the
Society is setting out to influence this new
framework by working in partnership.
Last month the Society hosted the
inaugural meeting of the Health Care
Professions Network that is sharing
best practice ideas across the NHS and
across different professions as to how
commissioning in the future will work.
There is an urgent need to create networks
that allow innovation at scale, spread ideas
and enable a movement for improvement
across the NHS driven by front-line staff.
The health care professionals’ network
is just one such example where health
professions come together from a variety
of professional backgrounds – including
pharmacy.
At the inaugural formal meeting
held on June 8, shared ideas
included:
• Targeted medicines use reviews carried
out by community pharmacy to those who
attend A&E frequently.
Howard Duff, Director for England
Commissioning: The new frontier
Why the generic substitution proposals fall wide of the mark
• Admissions prevention through a more
integrated approach between GP and local
pharmacy identifying at risk patients.
• Use of optometrists to support proactive
care for patients with certain long-term
conditions.
• Exploring ideas how a more sensitive
and specific commissioning process can
be developed locally by engaging the
broad scope of community healthcare
professionals in managing commissioning
budgets.
Local relationships
are key – We need to
share responsibility
for NHS budgets,
giving best value to
the taxpayer and
dovetail contractual
frameworks to
incentivise provider
collaboration
The network considered the role of health
care professionals in GP commissioning in
the following areas:
What does good “GP
commissioning” look like?
GP commissioning should build on the
principles of ‘best in class’ commissioning
led by front-line clinicians; yet characterised
by a lean, pro-active approach. It strikes
a healthy balance between inclusivity and
responsive decision making and action.
GP commissioning may be most
effective when led by a pro-active central
multidisciplinary front line clinical team
who drive change and have great channels
of communication across a large network,
enabling ideas to be brought in from
elsewhere.
A critical success factor within GP
commissioning is going to be robust needs
assessment. If commissioning requires a
rich picture of local health and well being,
every part of the system (local community,
the public, service users, secondary care, GP
commissioners, social care, community and
primary care providers) has a piece of that
jigsaw.
Who should be at the
commissioning table?
Commissioning must encompass a health
and wellbeing approach and must recognise
that health needs are often addressed beyond
the boundaries of health care itself.
Everybody who contributes to meeting
people’s health needs and who can do things
differently to improve care and patient
experience should, at some stage,
be involved.
Key findings
A number of key points have
been identified:
• names matter – the name GP
commissioning could create a barrier
to integrated, inclusive commissioning.
Transformational change cannot wait. That
means engaging everyone who impacts
on patient care. The policy must drive
integrated commissioning to produce
integrated care. GP commissioning needs to
be articulated in these terms.
• Local relationships are key – We need
to share responsibility for NHS budgets,
giving best value to the taxpayer and
dovetail contractual frameworks to
incentivise provider collaboration.
• Public health improvement and prevention
is bigger than general practice. Those whose
health needs are the greatest are often
unregistered or low users of the service.
The new model of commissioning must be
linked to joint strategic needs assessment
(JsnA) to ensure local commissioning
retains a public health focus.
• Commissioning needs to be based on
insights from the many. To create a rich
commissioning picture, we need data and
insights from all those who impact on
people’s care.
• Patients need to be fully involved in
commissioning. Finding more effective
ways of delivering patient and public
involvement in commissioning will be
critical to the success of any new model.
The output from the event will inform
thinking about how professionals other than
GPs can inform commissioning – especially
needs assessment. It will be used proactively
to shape the Government’s new White Paper
and aim to create a better environment for
pharmacists. n
The Health Professions
Network “Key Messages” on
commissioning:
• The fact that it is going to be called GP
commissioning presupposes a certain
approach that creates a barrier to more
inclusive commissioning beyond GPs. That
is unfortunate as transformational change
needs to engage everyone.
• Local relationships are key and contractual
frameworks need to incentivise
collaboration.
• The GP list is not necessarily a good focus
for commissioning. It misses some people
and is too simplistic to capture public
health improvement, which is bigger than
general practice.
• Commissioning needs to involve and
integrate the insights and thinking
(including the data available about the
patient) from all those who impact on
care; including patients themselves.
Lindsey Gilpin
Chair of the English
Pharmacy Board
Supervision – the debate
he responsible pharmacist regulations
Tare part one of a two part process – the
second part is remote supervision.”
I lost count of the number of times I said
that or something very similar late last year.
I was so worried that pharmacists would
not be ready for the responsible pharmacist
regulations that I spoke to any group who
would listen. Did I understand where the
whole concept of the regulations had come
from? No. Did I remember ever having any
sort of in depth discussion about the whole
concept? No again.
The Department of Health, no doubt with
the best of intentions, had taken us down
a road that few of us understood, let alone
supported.
That is not the way a professional body
should behave and from now on, it is not the
way the new Society will behave. This time,
right from the beginning, we will be involving
the great and the good of pharmacy – but
now that is you, the members.
There is no doubt that there is plenty to
think about when it comes to supervision.
There may be some overriding principles
such as ensuring the safety of the public and
making sure they have reasonable access to
a pharmacist, there may be other parts to
supervision that you feel could be changed –
do you want to be aware of the sale of every
packet of paracetamol while you are in the
consulting room, are you happy this could be
done by a properly trained assistant provided
there are no queries?
So please start thinking about supervision
and while you are doing this, give a bit
of time for a review of the responsible
pharmacist regulations too.
Community pharmacists, how are the new
rules working for you, have they made a
difference or not? If you are a locum do you
really read all the SOPs before you start work?
How about those SOPs, do you think they
should be independently validated?
Do you personally want to check every
item on a prescription, for accuracy as well
as clinically? Who do you think should bear
responsibility if things go wrong? Do you
think checked and bagged items might be
given out without a pharmacist present?
Would you have more confidence using
Accredited Checking Technicians if their
training was accredited by the GPhC?
Community
pharmacists, how are
the new rules working
for you, have they
made a difference
Hospital practice – do the responsible
pharmacist regulations have any valid
application, what is the responsible
pharmacist actually responsible for and if
anything goes wrong who will end up being
taken to court?
You see how many questions arise when
you start to look afresh at how pharmacy
actually works.
Fortunately, between us we will have the
answers, we will find a way that works for
us and keeps the core principles like patient
safety always to the fore.
We are putting in place a series of
consultations, we will work with others,
the Pharmacists’ Defence Association, the
Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, employers’
organisations etc. We will put together a
programme of consultations via the LPFs, via
the website, via webinars and I hope that
every Board member will end up speaking to
any group of pharmacists who will listen.
We need to get this right for the future of
community and hospital pharmacy. We all
need to input into this. Please start thinking
now so that when the debate gets fully
underway, you can play your part.
Supervision. We’re starting the debate;
we’d like you to join in. n
12 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
13

T h e V i e w f r o m S C o t l a n d
Lyndon Braddick
Director for Scotland
Getting our message across
Meeting mcPs from all parties with an interest in health
Over the last two months the
Scottish Government has been
consulting on the Control of Entry
Arrangements to NHS Pharmaceutical Lists.
In recent years the issue of who can offer
NHS pharmaceutical services, and how they
go about applying for entry, has become a
more controversial issue in Scotland.
I believe that this consultation has grown
out of the campaigns run by various GP
practices in rural Scotland to prevent the
opening of local community pharmacies.
These campaigns have been unhelpful as
they have unnecessarily raised tensions
between GPs and community pharmacists
and caused needless anxiety in a number of
rural communities.
The campaigns have also been based
on the false premise that the provision
of General Medical Services will be
significantly affected as they are dependent
on fees from dispensing.
As the NHS funds medical services
and pharmaceutical services separately
there should not be any impact on medical
services provided by a GP practice if it
stops dispensing. There are no examples
of a GP practice closing or reducing its
medical services as a result of a community
pharmacy opening nearby.
The Society believes strongly that the
health of patients should come first and
Top talks Meeting at the Scottish Parliament
we are concerned that campaigns by GP
dispensing practices put the financial
interests of those practices before health
outcomes for patients.
As well as submitting a response to the
consultation I have been meeting with a
number of relevant msPs to discuss this
situation. Along with Iain Brotchie, our
recently appointed External Relations
Specialist, we have met with msPs from all
parties with responsibility for health policy, as
well as with msPs who are members of the
Health Committee in the Scottish Parliament.
With a Scottish election now less than a
Survey for Scottish 2011 manifesto
Ideas for improving the nation’s health
In May 2011 there will be elections to
the Scottish Parliament. Whoever wins
the election and forms the next Scottish
Government will face tough challenges
meeting the country’s healthcare needs at a
time of reduced government funding. The
political parties in Scotland are all now in
the middle of putting together ideas for their
own manifesto.
As one of the major stakeholders in
Scotland’s health policy community,
the parties have already expressed their
year away, msPs in rural areas, particularly
marginal seats, come under a lot of pressure
through campaigns to ‘save’ the local doctor.
With misleading and emotive arguments,
it’s quite easy to build a campaign where
hundreds of local people become willing
to sign petitions, attend meetings, and
pressurise local politicians.
However, for pharmacists this means that
it is even more necessary that the Society
communicates to politicians what benefits
pharmacists bring to communities and how
the claims of GPs that medical services are
under threat don’t really stack up. n
willingness to look at any ideas the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society has for organising
health care and improving the nation’s
health.
The Scottish Pharmacy Board wants
to make sure that those seeking election
take on board the views of Scotland’s
pharmacists, but the Board is also determined
that any ideas that are put to politicians have
the support of Society members in Scotland.
To start the process the Board members
have discussed what they see as the major
issues that face pharmacists following the
2011 elections. Building on from that, the
Board would now like members to complete
a short survey that looks at whether there is
support for the Board’s initial ideas and what
other ideas should be included.
The Board is determined that this
manifesto will represent the whole of
the profession in Scotland. To do this
successfully it must listen to the voice of the
membership and make sure the 2011 Scottish
manifesto reflects what everyone has to say.
Manifesto will
represent the whole
of the profession in
Scotland
An email from the Chair of the Scottish
Pharmacy Board has been sent to all
members for whom email addresses are
known. This email contains a link to the
survey on the manifesto. The Society
website also now has a page dedicated to the
manifesto and the survey can be accessed
there too. Alternatively, you can type the url
(www.tobeconfirmed.com) directly into your
browser to go straight to the survey.
Once the results from this survey have
been analysed the Board will agree a draft,
which will then be presented to Scottish
members through the Local Practice
Forums and a series of webinars. The
finalised document will be one which all the
membership will have had an opportunity
to comment on and will hopefully support.
This will give it all the more force when it is
presented to politicians looking for ideas that
will improve Scotland’s health care in an era
of shrinking budgets. n
Sandra Melville
Chair of the Scottish
Pharmacy Board
Cross Party Group on
Heart Disease and Stroke
On June 2 the Scottish Parliament’s
Cross Party Group (CPG) on Heart
Disease and Stroke met to hear from
a panel of pharmacists on specialist pharmacy
services. Around 40 people attended the
meeting, including MSPs and representatives
from the SNP, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and
the Conservatives.
CPGs are groups created by Members of
the Scottish Parliament, which come together
from all the various political parties, to inform
themselves and campaign on areas of particular
concern. CPGs are usually run in partnership
with organisations from outside the Parliament
which share the MSPs’ concerns and objectives.
The Heart Disease and Stroke CPG is one of
the best-attended groups in the Parliament. It
is chaired by Helen Eadie, the Labour MSP for
Dunfermline East, with support from the British
Heart Foundation and Chest Heart and Stroke
Scotland.
Nicola Sturgeon, the Cabinet Secretary for
Health and Wellbeing, has attended this group
more than any other during her three years in
post, and she was in attendance once more at
the meeting on June 2.
The meeting started with questions and
answers to Ms Sturgeon, who announced
the formation of a new national taskforce to
tackle heart disease in Scotland. One of the
questions came from Steve McGlynn, Specialist
Principal Pharmacist in Cardiology at nhS
Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and the Society’s
representative on this CPG.
Steve asked what plans the Scottish
Government had to support the training of
pharmacists with clinical specialisms. The Health
Secretary replied that the Government would
support the education of clinical pharmacists
through neS diplomas and Masters courses and
that the Scottish Chief Pharmaceutical Officer
was working with neS and the Schools of
Pharmacy to explore the idea of doctorates in
clinical pharmacy.
However, Ms Sturgeon also added that it
would not be Government policy to centrally
promote the career structure of pharmacists
with clinical specialisms and that this would be a
matter for individual Health Boards to decide.
After the Health Secretary had finished
answering questions the meeting turned to the
presentations from the panel of pharmacists. I
gave a brief overview of the role of pharmacists
with a clinical specialism in the nhS and how the
Society is keen to work with the Government
and all political parties to ensure better health
outcomes for patients and more fulfilling careers
for pharmacists.
I was followed by Gordon Thompson, Lead
Pharmacist, Urgent Care at nhS Tayside. Gordon
spoke about the role of pharmacy services in the
care of acute cardiology patients and about how
the Scottish Patient Safety Alliance is looking at
pioneering patient safety.
Gordon was followed by a joint presentation
on coagulation from Jenny Stirton, Lead Clinical
Pharmacist at nhS Greater Glasgow and Clyde,
and Gillian Jardine, Principal Pharmacist for
Clinical Services at nhS Ayrshire and Arran.
Jenny’s presentation covered how warfarin
dosage was being adjusted for in-patients.
Gillian meanwhile talked about out-patient
anticoagulant services. Both presentations
looked at new programmes that are helping
engage patients in their own care through
education and making better use of the healthcare
team through better sharing of information
about medicine plans.
Steve McGlynn presented on pharmacist input
to consultant and nurse led heart failure clinics,
highlighting the benefits that pharmacists bring
to clinics.
The final presentation came from Ann
Kinnear, Lead Pharmacist in Medicine of the
Elderly and Stroke at the Royal Infirmary of
Edinburgh. Her presentation on stroke looked at
the need to target patients more likely to have
adherence problems with care plans.
Overall I felt that this was an excellent session,
one that really raised the profile of pharmacists. n
14 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
15

T h e V i e w f r o m wa l e s
Paul Gimson, Director for Wales
Looking out for you
Sometimes it feels as if the pharmacy
profession is fighting battles on all fronts
There is certainly no doubt that the
profession is coming under growing
pressures and pharmacists have
needed to become masters of juggling their
priorities.
Rest assured that RPS is acutely aware of
the pressures facing you and we are here to
stand by you at all times. While it is true that
the Society is going through a dramatic and
exciting transformation, I can assure you that
our main focus has not changed – we are here
to look out for you, to listen to you and to
work on your behalf.
As we approach the official launch of the
new professional leadership body, the Welsh
Directorate of RPS continues to be a hive of
activity, working with colleagues across RPS
and with other partners to explore where we
can support you in your daily practice, in
your future career direction and where we
can influence the future of the profession.
By fully embracing change - in the Society
and in the NHS – your RPS team in Wales is
taking a very positive view on developing and
promoting the pharmacy profession, aiming
to ensure that ‘difficulties mastered are
opportunities won’.
It is also reassuring to know that members
of the Welsh Pharmacy Board have real
ambition for your profession. We are working
on your behalf to ensure this ambition is
turned into reality and this month’s View
from Wales outlines some of the activity that
we have been taking forward for you over the
past month.
On a final note, we have some exciting
developments lined up for the rest of year to
ensure we engage with you and listen to your
concerns as well as your ideas for the future.
My message to all pharmacists in Wales
therefore stands firm; get involved and help
us to drive your ambition.
A very positive
view on developing
and promoting the
pharmacy profession,
aiming to ensure that
‘difficulties mastered
are opportunities won’
Science and the Assembly
The Welsh Directorate joined forces with
the RPS Science and Research Team and
the Welsh School of Pharmacy to highlight
the importance of pharmaceutical science
and research at the annual Science and
the Assembly event held on Tuesday May
18. Organised by the Royal Society of
Chemistry, the event has established itself as
a major forum providing opportunities for
Welsh Assembly Members to meet scientists
from across Wales and to discuss topical
scientific issues.
This year’s event was addressed by speakers
from diverse scientific fields and included a
presentation by the recently appointed Chief
Scientific Adviser for Wales, Professor John
Harries. In his address, Professor Harries
outlined his initial plans for Wales focusing
on the importance of collaboration between
industry, academia and across disciplines,
developing a strong knowledge economy and
securing funding and investment for S&R in
Wales. The event was also attended by Lesley
Griffith AM, Deputy Minister for Science,
Innovation and Skills.
RPS took the opportunity this year to work
in collaboration with Cardiff University to
promote pharmaceutical science at the event’s
exhibition held in the National Assembly for
Wales’ Senedd building in Cardiff Bay. The
exhibition included a wide range of resources
about the science of pharmacy as well as an
interesting display of innovation and research
in the development of micro-needles by the
Welsh School of Pharmacy.
Pharmacy at the Eisteddfod
The Welsh Directorate of Royal
Pharmaceutical Society took the opportunity
to promote pharmacy to the community
at the annual Eisteddfod yr Urdd, Wales’
cultural youth festival, this year hosted in
Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion.
Geraint Morgan who was at the event
representing the Hywel Dda Local Practice
Forum, attended the Year 13 and under male
choir competition which took place on Friday,
4 June, and was sponsored by the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society.
With up to 100,000 visitors and 15,000
competitors at the festival along with the
huge TV and radio audience, this was a
great opportunity for the Society to promote
pharmacy in Wales to the younger generations
and an opportunity to present to them the idea
of pharmacy as a future career.
Welsh Board delivers on health
literacy
A literature review by Public Health Wales
on health literacy, written to inform those
conducting future health literacy work
in Wales, has picked up on the Welsh
Board’s efforts to promote this in Wales.
In preparation for this literature review, an
initial report was written by Anne Hinchliffe,
Consultant in Pharmaceutical Public Health,
who hoped the report would “demonstrate
the breadth and importance of pharmacy’s
contribution to health literacy.”
Health literacy is particularly relevant to
pharmacy and over the years there has been
a lot of work completed in this area, both
to help pharmacists communicate messages
more effectively and to support patients so
they have a better understanding of medicines
and how to use them safely. As part of our
leadership role, we write a column ‘Ask
The expert’ for the Western Mail newspaper
which acts as a direct link to the Welsh public
to showcase pharmacy as well as helping to
educate the Welsh public. This was used in
the report submitted to Public Health Wales
(who have been commissioned by WAG to
explore opportunities for health literacy in
Wales) as an example of existing work.
The report also mentioned media campaigns
developed by the Welsh Board and its ability to
seek opportunities to get campaign messages
out in Wales using local Welsh media.
Are you using the new RPS
virtual networks?
We have developed a short tutorial that is
available as a webinar. This webinar is designed
to provide a ‘step by step’ guide to using the
basic functions of the RPS virtual networks.
During the tutorial we cover the virtual
network area of the PLB website, including
on-line groups and Local Practice Forum
networks. Also included are several handy
tips that may make using the virtual network
easier for you.
The tutorial is only ten minutes long and can
be accessed at a time to suit you. Please contact
the office if you would like further information
(wales@rpsgb.org / 029 2073 0310). n
Nuala Brennan
Chair of the Welsh
Pharmacy Board
The Faces of Pharmacy
Two Board Members on their future ambitions
Diane Heath
Diane has a general
background in hospital
pharmacy and has specialised
in community health services
where she developed a particular interest in
immunisation, this lead to her being seconded to
the Welsh Assembly Government swine flu team.
“Overtime, I developed an interest in social
care, in particular, how pharmacy can help
individuals retain their independence in medicine
taking, as well as ensuring that health and social
care staff working in all care settings handle
medicines safely.
I am currently the Lead Pharmaceutical
Advisor for Offender Health at the Welsh
Assembly Government and am a long standing
member of the National Committee, Primary &
Community Care Pharmacy Network where I
Don Hughes
Don Hughes has worked
in the Welsh nhS for five
years and until recently was
chair of the Welsh Chief
Pharmacists Committee. He has spent most of
his career working in the hospital service, based
in a number of hospitals in the North West of
England. He currently works as a hospital chief
pharmacist in Ysbty Glan Clwyd, part of the Betsi
Cadwaladr University Health Board.
“I have spent the most part of my career
pursuing my passion for clinical pharmacy and
innovative solutions for improving the clinical
use of medicines. I have been really fortunate to
work in some forward thinking hospitals and with
forward thinking colleagues.
Whilst we are trained as clinical scientists, I
believe we often loose sight of that when we
move into practice. I believe we could do much
better at integrating academia into practice, and
in terms of safety and effectiveness of the clinical
use of medicines, evidence suggests we could
do much better. Patients are often prescribed
and dispensed medicines which at best do little
have held the office of both chair and treasurer.”
If there was one thing you could achieve by the
end of the current WPB’s term, what is it?
“I really want to be actively involved in
the creation and ongoing development of a
Leadership Body whose members are confident
will support, guide and develop them throughout
their entire careers. I want the new Leadership
Body to be something that people are proud to
be a member of.”
What are your ambitions for the future of
pharmacy?
“The profession at the forefront of health
and social care and respected by patients, the
public and the Government alike. I would like to
see the profession continue in its development
and exist in a world where, when medicines
are mentioned, pharmacists and pharmacy
automatically come to mind.”
good and at worst cause significant harm.”
If there was one thing you could achieve by the
end of the current WPB’s term, what is it?
“The advent of new Health Boards in Wales
provide the profession with opportunities for
much better integrated working practices
between different sectors of the profession. I’d
like to see the Welsh Board provide leadership to
support the dynamic changes required during this
great time of potential change.”
What ambitions for pharmacy’s future?
“My brief experience of community pharmacy
and my lengthy experience of practice in
hospital pharmacy, along with practice research,
undergraduate and post-graduate teaching
pharmacy have given me a real insight into
the opportunities and threats facing of our
profession. Whilst we claim to be the profession
who are experts in the use of medicines, we
know that there is considerable wastage
and harm with medicines, much of which is
preventable. I would like to see pharmacy be the
key profession in delivering quality improvement,
change and innovation with the way medicines
are used to provide better care.” n
16 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
17

p o l i t i c a l v i e w
Plenty of talk but precious little action
RPSGB head of public affairs Charles Willis looks at the challenges of a new government
PharMACy has
enjoyed the attention of
Government for several
years now. It was subject to a
white paper proposing much
in the way of a brave new,
pharmacy-led, world. Much has
been said and considered within
Westminster and Whitehall
in the two years since the
consultation document was
published. Unfortunately, despite
extraordinary levels of activity
amongst pharmacy organisations,
little of what has been discussed
has been converted to something
of substance.
I believe one reason for this
is that governments need to
feel comfortable with and/or
convinced that new initiatives
will succeed. As with many
things pharmacy-related, the
profession has little evidence
to prove its case. The RPS is
currently turning this situation
around.
Some important steps within
government were taken and
the RPS has led the way with
much of the current work. We
have built a case for pharmacy,
represented individual members’
views and demonstrated what
pharmacists can achieve.
The change of government
brings new challenges with it.
Both the Liberal Democrats
and Conservatives had their
own policies before the General
Election. Now they are trying to
merge them into an acceptable
coalition perspective. The RPS
is helping where it can, offering
advice and giving the views of
members.
Unofficial fan club
The English Pharmacy Board
is engaging with new MPs to
put the case for pharmacists and
demonstrate what pharmacy
professionals can deliver.
Constituency visits are being
arranged across England to
We will be using the time and
energy of eager politicians who can
approach their colleagues and ask for
their signature, in scenes reminiscent
of Freshers’ Week at university
facilitate these engagement
events and to help build a
new unofficial fan club within
Westminster that not only
understands pharmacy but also
fully appreciates its value.
What do civil contingency,
beer, Somaliland and pharmacy
all have in common? They
all have an all-party group to
promote their interests inside
the Houses of Parliament. These
Groups are unofficial groups
of MPs and peers who have
expressed an interest in a specific
subject and sign up to a group
that commits to meet at least
once per year to elect officers and
discuss issues of interest.
The All-Party Pharmacy
Group goes beyond the
activities and achievements
of most all-party groups. It
involves individual pharmacists,
representatives of the main
pharmacy bodies, civil servants
and other key stakeholders
in debates on pertinent issues
affecting the profession.
It held an inquiry and
produced a Report: The Future
of Pharmacy, which was
largely adopted by the previous
Government in the White Paper.
The All-Party Pharmacy Group
boasted a membership of over
100 MPs and peers but the recent
election depleted its membership
and approximately 40 politicians
from the previous Government
are still in Parliament.
A three-strand strategy has
been put into place to encourage
new members and maintain the
high level of visibility pharmacy
has in Westminster: The RPS,
in addition to the other main
pharmacy bodies, is making
approaches to new politicians
to encourage them to join
the Group: We will be using
the time and energy of eager
politicians who can approach
their colleagues and ask for their
signature, in scenes reminiscent
of Freshers’ Week at university.
Just as at Freshers’ Week, the
APPG is a single voice amongst
hundreds of other voices all
clamouring for the attention
of bemused newly elected
politicians.
Politicians are usually
concentrating their attentions on
securing an office, employing
staff and learning how to table
questions etc. The RPS will
break this focus on setting up a
presence in Westminster to get
them to focus on more esoteric
issues.
Outstanding results
Whilst this activity will
produce results, participation
by individual pharmacists
will produce better results.
Constituency MPs are keen
to engage with constituents
– keener than they are to
currently meet with national
organisations. A co-ordinated
approach by pharmacists and
the RPS will ensure that we get
outstanding results in creating
a large group that offers a
regular platform for pharmacy
in Westminster.
The RPS website carries an
easy step-by step explanation
of how to contact your
constituency MP and ask them
to become a member of the
All-Party Pharmacy Group.
The web page also offers a
suggested letter for you to cut
and paste into the mailbox of
your local MP.
This single action will have a
real impact on how politicians
view pharmacists in the near
future. It is also likely to
assist in the RPS endeavours
to promote pharmacy within
decision-maker and opinionformer
circles. n
l charles.willis@rpsgb.org
b u s i n e s s p r a c t i c e
The health questions that the UK census will not ask
Everyone in Britain
is to be asked how they
feel. This is neither a
polite inquiry nor a piece of
market research by medicine
manufacturers; it is one of the
questions to be included on next
year’s UK census and we will
face prosecution if we do not
give an accurate view of our
own health.
There will be 56 questions,
most with multiple-option
answers, spread over 32 pages
for everyone in every household
to complete. The census has
been conducted every 10 years
for two centuries and provides
governments with the data
to plan the nation’s future.
Analysis and cross-correlation
of our replies should allow the
bureaucrats to decide if an area
needs more schools or fewer
hospitals, for instance.
Yet despite asking after
our wellbeing, the census we
face next March is a missed
opportunity for learning about
the true state of the nation’s
health. The form will require us
to describe our race, religion,
origins and employment at
length, but there is just one
question about our physical
condition – “How good is your
health in general?”. Our choice
will be to tick Very good, Good,
Fair, Bad or Very bad.
Conditions
Maybe that is better than the
2001 census, when the options
were just Good, Fairly good and
Not good, but as any pharmacist
trying to advise customers
on their ailments knows, the
question is too subjective to be
useful. There are conditions that
Richard Northedge
A missed opportunity for learning about the nation’s health
stoics would describe as ‘good’
but which a similarly afflicted
malingerer would claim to be
‘very bad’.
A decade ago the census
also asked if we had a longterm
illness, health problem or
disability that limits our daily
activities or the work we can
do. That question has been
dropped for next year, but so
has the question asking whether
we are qualified dentists,
doctors, nurses, midwives or
health visitors. No mention of
pharmacists, unfortunately, but
as the only other professionals
named were teachers, the civil
servants posing the questions
obviously had health matters
high in their minds.
Yet the fear is that the census
officials are asking so many
questions that you cannot see
the wood for the trees. Was it
really necessary to ask 70m
people if they are a dentist
when one call to the British
Dental Association would give
not only the total but also their
names and addresses.
In theory, if government
wants a picture of the state
of the nation’s health then a
questionnaire sent to doctors
and hospitals would reveal the
answer more easily than asking
the patients.
Analysis of those answers
would indicate the correlation
of particular conditions to
location and age. But it takes
the additional information on
those lengthy census forms to
provide the data that might link
specific illnesses with, say, who
has bathrooms or who lives in
bedsits. It might be relevant
to know if car-owners or
Christians or caravan-dwellers
suffer different ailments from
Hindus in houses with heating.
There may even be interesting
patterns connecting wellbeing
Yet the fear is that the census
officials are asking so many
questions that you cannot see
the wood for the trees
to ethnic origins or race or
marital status. Or links between
sickness and employment.
Cross-analysis
GPs and hospitals, while they
may meticulously record details
of diseases and disorders, know
little or nothing of patients’
backgrounds. However, while
the census asks all the intrusive
questions about our homes,
jobs, lifestyles and origins,
it fails to seek answers about
wellbeing that would allow
cross-analysis. It does not
even ask about our earnings
or wealth, nevermind any
health questions other than that
meaningless five-choice general
query.
In a world of joined up
government, the NHS data
would be crunched with the
census statistics to produce a
proper picture that could allow
planners to identify both the
causes of sickness and where to
locate the clinics, surgeries and
pharmacies to cure it.
It is not privacy that prevents
such statistical scrutiny –
the compulsory questions
demand disclosure of most
of our personal details – but
government inefficiency. It
will take 18 months to produce
even a simple headcount of
the UK population without
any breakdown of the total.
And producing this late and
incomplete data will cost
taxpayers £482m.
If the inquiry about our
health had been by a medicine
manufacturer the cost would be
far less and the results revealed
much sooner. A drugs company
would realise that a small
sample of people can produce
as accurate a conclusion as
quizzing 70m people.
And the pharmaceutical
companies would ask
relevant questions on which
important decisions affecting
the nation’s health could be
based. As pharmacists are both
regularly polled by the drugs
manufacturers and receive
the benefit of their market
research, they well know
already that such studies are
being conducted, but if an
official census is worth carrying
out at all, then surely it should
be asking something more
important than whether our
health is generally fair. n
l Richard Northedge writes
for the Spectator, Wall Street
Journal, Independent on Sunday
and other publications.
18 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
19

f e at u r e p h a r m a c y o n t v
Victorian
pharmacy lives again
If you have ever wondered what it feels like to be a
time traveller ask Professor Nick Barber, says Jeff Mills
e has just spent much of the spring
living his professional life in a Victorian
pharmacy, albeit one specially created by the BBC for
an exciting new series due to be aired during the next
few weeks.
Four hour-long programmes, due to be screened on
BBC 2 this month (July) and possibly followed up later
in the autumn with more episodes on BBC 1, track the
development of pharmacy from early Victorian times,
round about the 1840s, through to the late 1800s.
In them Nick, together with his co-presenters,
historians Ruth Goodman and Tom Quick, experience
the day-to-day life of a pharmacist at a time when they
were often the only accessible and affordable source of
serious sewerage problems in cities such as London.
“Luckily this was the period when carbolic acid was
developed as a byproduct of coal production.
“Other major issues of the Victorian era included
the shocking number of arsenic-related deaths, which
in turn led to the introduction of the Arsenic Act in
1851creating the first Poisons Register.”
It wasn’t only medicines that were provided by
Victorian pharmacists, says Nick. They dispensed
plenty of other things, including perfumes, for example.
“Pharmacists had expertise in essential oils and used
to blend their own perfumes. They supplied shaving
equipment, too. Why? Because they not only made
shaving preparations but also shaved their customers.
Pharmacists’ willingness to take on almost anything
healthcare for a population often unable to afford the
services of doctors or other health professionals.
The Victorian Pharmacy series, made by Lion TV,
the production company which was also responsible for
the documentary series focusing on a Victorian Farm,
illustrates amongst other things, early pharmacists’
willingness to take on almost anything to provide their
public with what they wanted.
Medicines in those days may have been limited and
crude by today’s standards but even then pharmacists,
as they are today, were acknowledged as experts in
the use of herbs, plant extracts and chemicals, not
to mention countless other everyday essentials to
Victorian life.
“We started the series by looking at the
start of the Victorian era when the use of
leeches, bleeding and was rife,” says Nick
Barber. “There’s also quite a bit on the use
of herbal remedies”.
There were plenty of diseases around
to be fought off, he says. “Cholera was
a major killer at the time and there were
“Why reading glasses and dental care, you may
wonder? Pharmacists used to make tooth powders,
extract teeth, test eyes and fit glasses. Indeed, the
Pharmaceutical Society was formed decades before the
equivalent dentistry and optics bodies.
“And the list goes on – photography, sexual health,
dermatologicals and so on. Whatever the public wanted,
pharmacists bought, made or created a service for it.”
We could do with some of that Victorian
entrepreneurial spirit now, Nick says. Community
pharmacy faces one of the worst financial climates for
more than 50 years, yet it is tethered to dispensing, for
which it will inevitably get less money. “We need to
reconnect to our customers, talk to them and offer the
services – NHS funded or private – that they
want,” he says.
Nick Barber is Professor of the Practice
of Pharmacy at the University of London’s
School of Pharmacy.
Victorian Pharmacy is due to be screened
by BBC2 from the middle of July and
possibly repeated in the autumn.
Æ
lion tv
20 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 21

f e at u r e p h a r m a c y o n t v
Checking
the history
It all started with a phone call asking what material the
Society’s held that would help a research enquiry on
pharmacy in the Victorian period, recalls Briony Hudson,
keeper of the Museum Collections
ot an unusual request, but the eventual
outcome was a bigger project than the
Museum had ever taken on before, with national
coverage of British pharmacy history (the Museum’s
core remit) on primetime BBC2. Quite a challenge
with two members of staff to run the Museum’s full
operation, but well worth the effort.
Yvonne Gray and Stevie Whiteford, two Lion TV
researchers, made a preliminary visit to the Museum
in February when, with my colleague Peter Homan
from the British Society of the History of Pharmacy,
our topics of discussion covered controlled drugs,
pharmacy education, women pharmacists, children’s
medicines, how to research the ingredients of ‘secret
remedies’ and pharmacists’ forays into dentistry,
optometry and photography.
This ‘smorgasbord’ approach to research for the
series continued over the next two months with follow
up emails arriving weekly. Topics included: ‘Does
the RPSGB hold a copy of the Pharmaceutical Joint
Formulary, including the formulas of the counter
products and proprietary medicines?’ ‘Which 19th
Century medicines for children were opiate based?’
‘What might we film in order to cover the issues
surrounding poisons in the 1800s?’ ‘What items did
we have in our collections that were significant to
the development of the pharmacy industry?’ “Did we
have any contraptions, gadgets, or quirky items that
would be interesting to viewers in their
own right?’ ‘Did pharmacists ever make
paper?’
Yvonne and Stevie’s queries were
quickly followed by a new line of
enquiry – from the author of the book
that was being written to accompany
the series, Jane Eastoe, a social history
author, who had been commissioned
to write a book that complemented the
series, but wasn’t tied strictly to its
content.
Jane spent a research day using the Library’s
collection, particularly focusing on how to add
individual stories into the account and uncovering
unusual recipes, including one for chewing gum and
one for ‘Artificial Blacking for Negroes’, clearly
totally unacceptable to a 21st century customer. At a
later date, the Museum’s collection was also trawled
to provide images for the book which should be
published to coincide with the series being broadcast.
Meanwhile, I had also been contacted by Nick
Barber, Professor of the Practice of Pharmacy at
the University of London’s School of Pharmacy.
Following a successful screen test making
mayonnaise in his kitchen, Nick had been selected
to be the Victorian pharmacist – and enter the world
of 19th century pharmacy from his 21st century
perspective. Nick and I met up to discuss general
issues of the period, so that I could point him in the
direction of key resources enabling him to could glean
as much information as possible prior to the filming.
Soon afterwards, Nick’s ‘apprentice, history
graduate Tom Quick, was appointed. We spent a fun
afternoon with Nick, Tom, Martin Kemp and Peter
Cooksley, the series producers/directors picking out
quirky exam questions from the 1870s and showing
them how pills, suppositories and cachets were made
by the pharmacist in the 19th century.
The third person to experience Victorian pharmacy
from the inside was to be Ruth
Goodman, a veteran of Lion TV’s
popular Victorian Farm series, so
we also discussed what her role
might have been as a woman in a
19th century pharmacy business.
By then, I had agreed to spend
a day in late April being filmed
as part of the programme. Blists
Hill Victorian Town in Shropshire
had been selected as the location,
with the reconstructed Victorian
pharmacy as the main set. We agreed that I would
be filmed talking about ‘cure alls’ and proprietary
medicines, and also about qualifying as a pharmacist
as a process.
As the filming day approached, the requests to
bring a whole range of objects from the Museum’s
collections grew, with the end result that a runner
collected me and two large boxes from the Society in
a car for the long drive to Telford.
The day of filming started with the selection of
a costume for me to wear, and the filming schedule
talked through. I’ve been filmed both for live and
recorded television before, but never anything that so
comprehensively threw everyone into a particular era
and environment. An impressive mocked up ‘back
room’ had been created behind the pharmacy itself
for some sequences, and other parts of the Blist’s Hill
complex were also used to add atmosphere.
The first sequence I was involved in was a chat
with Nick about proprietary medicines. Using some
examples I’d brought with me, we discussed the
secret nature of their ingredients, the huge sums
spent on advertising in the period, and some specific
examples of popular medicines that had hit the big
time. All very relaxed if you ignored the cameraman,
sound man/director and researcher.
With the director prompting us to cover specific
questions or subject areas, it was then left up to
the editing process to create the final product. The
next two sequences saw me acting as chaperone for
our objects, rather than appearing in front of the
camera: A section on poisons which included filming
of a Burroughs Wellcome antidote case from the
collection, and a brief series of shots of children’s
medicines which I’d brought with me for the purpose.
It was a beautiful sunny day, and I got a welcome
three-hour break in which I explored the rest of the
complex, ate fish and chips cooked in lard by the
canal, and spotted the first aeroplanes emerging from
beyond the volcanic ash – not very Victorian.
We started my final filming session at about 4pm, in
the Victorian school room. The topic was qualifications
and education, and the sequence involved two
elements, the participants questioning me about the
way that people could become pharmacists, followed
All very relaxed if you ignored the cameraman,
sound man, director and researcher
by a mock ‘exam’ involving Nick, Tom and Ruth,
alongside a herbalist and chemistry historian who were
also involved in the filming.
Suppositories had been made by the three
participants the previous day for me to judge – not
difficult as only Nick had made them before, and it
showed! We then used a pharmacy students’ materia
medica identification chest to test the ‘students’ who
had to recognise seeds and barks from its drawers. We
finally chose two tricky questions from the original
botany and chemistry exam papers for them to answer.
The sequence was very much an improvisation exercise
– quite a challenge after a long day.
I left for the drive back to London at about 7pm
as team members were preparing themselves for
an evening session filming fireworks, linked to
a sequence I’d watched earlier in the day, with a
historical fireworks expert trying not to blow up the
set while Nick watched.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, a
fascinating way to use my expertise and promote
pharmacy history – and I’m really looking forward to
seeing the end product.
Æ
22 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 23

f e at u r e p h a r m a c y o n t v
Good
TV great for pharmacy
The Society’s Head of Communications Neal Patel
celebrates pharmacists’ positive media presence
aising the profile of the profession
through the media is a key part of the
role of the professional body, to date media promotion
been focused on making sure pharmacists have a
presence in the news.
Investment in trained spokespeople from across
the profession plus greater media engagement and a
focus on issues that matter to the public are paying
dividends, but the Victorian Pharmacy is something
very different, giving us an opportunity to broaden
our scope to achieve the media presence that
pharmacists want to see.
As Briony discusses elsewhere the Society made
a big commitment to Victorian Pharmacy preproduction
and it is true to say that it’s difficult to
imagine the programme being made without the
support of my colleagues at the Society’s museum.
Having a BBC prime time TV series with the word
“pharmacy” in the title is not to be sniffed at – having
a pharmacist cast in the lead role is something we
should definitely celebrate.
So why is this series important and how does it
relate to practice today?
The Victorian era was an important time for the
profession. Through the establishment of the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society it could be said that the
mid-1800s marked the point when the pharmacy
profession began, always good to remind the public
we are a profession with a long and distinguished
history.
Jacob Bell and his colleagues lived in a very
different world from the one we know now; few
people could afford to see a doctor, there was no NHS
and many relied on pharmacists to deal with minor
ailments and long-term conditions.
Fast forward to today and much of the clinical role
that community pharmacy aspires to embrace can be
found in past.
Although the products available in the Victorian era
were untested at best and poisonous at worst, the role
of the pharmacist as professional advisor on health
was recognised by everyone.
Products available in the Victorian era
were untested at best and poisonous at worst
How does that role of the pharmacist in the past
play in the modern world where Government is
talking about tough decisions on health costs?
People are once again being encouraged to “self
care” with regard to their health, something that will
drive people into pharmacy looking for help, advice
and treatment for self limiting minor ailments.
So, the series offers an opportunity to see what
pharmacists did in the past as well as to compare that
with the present and future roles.
What next? Well, we have had conversations with
three TV production teams in recent weeks. Early
days and certainly no guarantees, but encouraging that
other programme makers are considering pharmacy.
In the meantime I’m looking forward to what I
know will be an accurate and entertaining history
programme. I feel that having a pharmacist in a key
role will add an authentic feel and be a source of pride
for the profession. n
24 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 25

f e at u r e r p s c o n f e r e n c e
T h e j o u r n e y i s j u s t t h e s t a r t o f t h e
adventure
Explore theTyrol
and relax in
opulent surroundings
A Castle in the Tyrol – 10 days from £1,295
Schlosshotel, Fieberbrunn
RPS Conference 2010
September’s unmissable event at Imperial College, London
It is just a few weeks now until one of the
major pharmacy events of late summer
goes under the spotlight, when the
Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s exciting new
conference takes centre stage at Imperial
College in London.
Aptly entitled “Supporting patient and
professional decision-making”, the RPS
Conference 2010 takes place on Sunday
and Monday September 5 and 6, carefully
timed to reduce to a minimum the time busy
pharmacists need to take from their schedules.
With a specialised focus on front line
pharmacists and practice, the RPS Conference
2010 will showcase how the Society as the
new professional leadership body supports
its members in developing their professional,
practice and leadership skills.
It will also, crucially, provide an
important opportunity for pharmacists
to learn about the latest practice
developments from across Great
Britain, develop their skills and
network with their peers and leaders
in the profession.
The conference will also
explore how pharmacists
26 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
can tackle issues professionally as their
clinical roles increase, and sets out to provide
an enlightening forum for in-depth and
multi-professional discussions that will bring
practical solutions to life in an informative
and entertaining way.
Not to be missed
The programme will be led by Conference
Chair, Professor Marjorie Weiss, Professor
of Pharmacy Practice & Medicine Use at the
University of Bath, together with professional
leads from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
and its membership, including the Society’s
Director of Professional Development and
Support, Dr Catherine Duggan (pictured).
“We developed the conference programme
with pharmacists’ professional and leadership
skills in mind,” says Marjorie. “The
sessions will help pharmacists get better
equipped to deal with the day-to-day
professional issues they face at work
and assist them in making the best
decisions in patients’ best interests,
using the best evidence available.
“This is a not-to-be-missed
event for pharmacists and
will showcase the latest practice research. It
will feature thought-provoking sessions to
empower your professional and leadership
skills through networking and workshops
which will be both inspiring and interactive.”
Marjorie’s view is reinforced by Catherine
Duggan. “This Conference will showcase
how the Society as the new professional
leadership body is supporting its members
to develop their professional, practice and
leadership skills,” she says.
“It will provide an important opportunity
for pharmacists to learn about the latest
practice developments from across Great
Britain, develop their skills and network with
peers and leaders in the profession.
“As Director of Professional Development
and Support at the Society, I see this
conference as an excellent way to network
with colleagues, take part in some professional
debates, listen and contribute to emerging
research agendas, gain an awareness of how
evidence can contribute to the case for service
provision and attend some workshops around
professional development,” she says.
“The Conference Theme is “Supporting
patient and professional decision making”
Æ
Discover the spectacular scenery, historic railways and elegant
resorts of the Austrian Tyrol from our luxurious base in the
Schlosshotel Rosenegg, a 12th century castle that once
welcomed the Emperor Napoleon.
Your holiday itinerary
Day 1. To Cologne. Leave St Pancras
International for Brussels by Eurostar
before transferring to the Thalys service to
Cologne, where we spend the night
Day 2. South to the Tyrol. Enjoy the
spectacular scenery of the Rhine Valley,
renowned for hilltop castles and steep
vineyards, as we travel on the Inter-City
Train. We arrive at the Schlosshotel
Rosenegg in Fieberbrunn where we
spend the next seven nights
Day 3. Discover Fieberbrunn. Your stay
begins with a guided orientation walk,
after which you’re free to enjoy the hotel’s
spa facilities and explore the village, walk
in the surrounding meadows or see the
mountains by cable car
Day 4. Excursion to Kitzbühel. Visit one
of Austria’s most prestigious winter resorts,
basking in a wonderful location in the
Kitzbüheler Alps. Explore the quaint streets
and shops, before returning to our hotel
for an evening of traditional Tyrolean
entertainment
Day 5. Krimml Falls. Travel by coach
through beautiful countryside to the
spectacular Krimml falls, which at 1,250 feet
(381 metres) are the highest in Europe.
We also visit Krimml’s Water Wonder
World exhibition, then it’s back to
Fieberbrunn for the ‘Schlossherrenbuffet’,
a gala buffet with musical fanfare
Day 6. Relax or explore. Today you can
relax in the hotel’s spa facilities or go
sightseeing in St Johann in Tirol or
Kirchberg. Alternatively, an hour’s train
journey will take you to the Zillertalbahn
Railway or elegant Innsbruck, capital of
the Tyrol with its Imperial buildings and
quaint Old Town
Day 7. The Achenseebahn Railway.
Take a delightful rail excursion along the
Inn Valley to the Achenseebahn Railway, a
four-mile narrow-gauge railway negotiating
the steep climb from Jenbach in the valley
to Achensee, the Tyrol’s largest lake. Here
you can relax by the lakeside, enjoy lunch
or take a boat trip
Day 8. Excursion to Zell am See.
Travel east by train to the classic resort
of Zell am See, hugging Lake Zell beneath
the Schmittenhöhe mountain. Following
a leisurely lake cruise, you can stroll
along the shore and enjoy the scenery at
your own pace
Day 9. To Cologne. Leave Fieberbrunn
to spend your final night in Cologne.
Our late afternoon arrival gives you a
little time before dinner to explore this
historic city with its elegant squares and
medieval churches
Day 10. To London. Journey back
to Brussels to join the Eurostar to
St Pancras International
Great value, with all this included:
• First & Standard Class
rail travel throughout
• 9 nights hotel
accommodation, with
breakfast each day
• 9 dinners
• 3 full-day excursions
& 1 village walk
• All transfers
• Accompanied by
an experienced
Tour Manager
BOOK WITH 100% CONFIDENCE
FULLY BONDED, FULLY PROTECTED
TRAVEL in comfort on
historic railways
EXPLORE famous
cities and towns
MARVEL at
awe-inspiring
sights and see more
of the beautiful scenery
WAKE UP refreshed
and relaxed in
comfortable hotels
DISCOVER a wealth
of information from
friendly, experienced
Tour Managers
2010 DEPARTURES
Jul 19 £1,295 Sep 3, 20 £1,335
Aug 16 £1,295
No-one
Great
does
RailJourneys
rail holidays like
Dates and prices are subject to availability. Prices shown are
per person based on 2 sharing. Terms and conditions apply.
To BOOK or request a brochure call:
01904 734 034
Visit: www.GreatRail.com/Alps

FREE 96 page brochure
f e at u r e r p s c o n f e r e n c e
bespoke design & craftsmanship
10 YEAR Guarantee
FREE local design service
BUY NOW PAY IN 12 MONTHS **
with a strong section on professional
development and support, including
developing leadership skills at all levels and
across all sectors with practical examples and
views from the field to best deal with dayto-day
practice; developing leadership locally
that discuss the challenges and opportunities
in developing LPFs; how the pharmacy
profession plays a major role in the wider
public health by empowering patient decision
making through public health programme,
and we have (obviously) focused on cancer to
showcase work to inform patients.
“There are opportunities to consider how
we will be able to afford new medicines in
the NHS – in our opening keynote speech
as well as opportunities to debate and
discuss key issues through the plenary
session which has been set up as a Question
Time debate – Drugs in the Media, and a
chance to listen to and share experiences in
facing challenges and making decisions in
a difficult environment and take from this
how professionals can break down barriers,
even when presented with seemingly
insurmountable challenges,” Catherine says.
“The professional development and
support elements of the programme have
been designed to provide some learning
opportunities for pharmacists, some
opportunities for professional development,
chances to network and meet new colleagues
and old friends!”
CPD support a major
conference benefit
Supporting your Continuing Professional
Development (CPD) requirements is one
of the key benefits of attending the RPS
Conference in September.
With 100% of the programme eligible for
CPD and the CPD team available on-site, the
conference will provide an important resource
to support you in meeting CPD requirements.
You can choose from no fewer than 10
sessions offering CPD benefits and you’ll have
the opportunity to speak to the CPD team, not
only about evaluating what you have learned
but also about using this as entries in your
record. Delegate bags will contain prompt
sheets that you can use during sessions to
guide you in using the session for CPD.
A packed and dynamic
conference programme
A keynote session – Affording new medicines
in the NHS – priority setting, patients’ rights
and the NHS constitution – sets the scene as
the conference opens on Sunday morning.
Under the chairmanship of Catherine
Duggan, the opening lecture by Barrister and
Professor of Health Law Christopher Newdick
of the University of Reading, will look at the
ethical issues around managing medicines
across a population and the role pharmacy
has to play.
Delegates will take a step back in time
later on Sunday morning when they have the
opportunity to explore their heritage with
a session entitled Back to the future: What
role does the Victorian Pharmacist have in
our understanding and promotion of today’s
pharmacy profession?
Speakers will include Professor Nick Barber,
who plays the part of a Victorian pharmacist
in the BBC Victorian Pharmacy documentary
series due to be screen this summer (see our
feature on page 20). He will be joined by
historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes,
You can choose
from no fewer than
10 sessions offering
cpD benefits
a research fellow at King’s College, London,
who chairs the session and the TV series’
Executive Producer, David Upshal.
Developing leadership skills will come
under the spotlight in Session 5, entitled
Empowering you in decision making –
examples from different perspectives,
chaired by Catherine Duggan and with a
panel made up of Chris Green, Director
of Pharmacy and Medicines Management
at Countess of Chester Hospital NHS
Foundation Trust and Linda Stephens,
National Pharmacy Adviser, GSK.
There’s an important Plenary session:
Question time debate on Sunday afternoon
which explores the relationship between
science and the public seen through the prism
of the media.
Under the chairmanship of RPS Head
of Corporate Communications Neal Patel,
the panel includes Sile Lane, Public Liaison,
Sense About Science, Pharmaceutical
Journal Editor Olivia Timbs and a national
newspaper health writer.
Career development and networking is
covered on Monday afternoon in a session
entitled Connecting with others – developing
leadership locally.
And improving patient outcomes is
the focus of a session on Making difficult
decisions in the workplace where, guided by
Conference Chair Marjorie Weiss, Catherine
Wolthuizen, Director, Public Concern at
Work, will speak on Whistleblowing in
the Workplace, while Marcus Doel, Head
of Environment and Society, University of
Swansea and Hayley Hutchings, Senior
Lecturer CHIRAL, School of Medicines,
University of Swansea will address Patientcentred
professionalism in community
pharmacy.
And don’t miss the final session before
the closing remarks when the stage will be
turned over to Dame Claire Bertschinger,
Head of Tropical Nursing at the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the
nurse credited with inspiring the 1985 Live
Aid concerts to fight famine in Ethiopia. She
is also credited with inspiring rock star Bob
Geldof to begin Live Aid fundraising.
Exhibiting to the world of
pharmacy
The RPS Conference provides an ideal
opportunity for organisation to show their
support for the professional leadership body
and its membership while at the same time
promoting their products and services both
at the event and in related media, including
Pharmacy Professional.
Exhibiting provides the opportunity to:
• Educate and inform opinion leaders in the
sector
• Network directly with pharmacists who
influence organisations’ business
• And, through some packages, extend the
message via the RPS website and related
media.
The latest list of organisations exhibiting
at the conference includes:
MHRA
CPPE
NHS Choices
CIS Healthcare
CoAcs
National Clinical Assessment Service
Wockhardt UK
Merck Serono
NHS Connecting for Health
NICE TV
BMJ Group
NPC Plus / School of Pharmacy: Keele
University.
To register for the RPS Conference 2010
and to see the full conference programme
visit rpharms.com/conference. n
SUMMER SALE
With substantial savings on ALL our furniture, * now is the perfect time to invest in
fabulous, bespoke, handcrafted furniture.
*To qualify for your sale discount you must place your order between 29/5/2010 and 31/7/2010. Minimum order value £3,000 +VAT. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer.
**Buy now pay in 12 months, finance offer is available on orders over £3,000 + VAT. Finance offer is subject to acceptance, terms and conditions apply. Typical finance example: total cash price
£7,500, £1,875 deposit, balance £5,625 and nothing to pay for 12 months. Option 1 pay balance in full £5,625. Option 2 pay 48 monthly repayments of £154.07. Total amount repayable on option
2 is £9,270.30 (inc. deposit), finance charge £1,770.30. Typical APR 9.9%.
www.nevillejohnson.co.uk/pharmacy
Alternatively, complete and return the coupon to the address below.
PHARM04
Mr/Mrs/Miss:
Name:
Address:
Postcode: Tel: Email:
Please tick if you do not wish to receive information concerning other Neville Johnson products
Neville Johnson Ltd, Broadoak Business Park, Ashburton Road West, Trafford Park, Manchester, M17 1RW. Fax: 0161 873 8335.
With substantial savings on all styles and finishes the Neville
Johnson Sale provides the perfect opportunity to acquire the
beautiful, handcrafted bespoke furniture you’ve always dreamed
of. The ultimate home study, a dream bedroom, the home cinema
you simply must have or the magnificent library you need for all
your literary greats.
PLUS for a limited period if you take advantage of the Neville
Johnson account you can BUY NOW & PAY IN 12 MONTHS. **
So with our FREE DESIGN SERVICE and SALE SAVINGS * what
more could you ask for? Call today and one of our experienced
designers will be more than happy to advise you, whatever stage
your project is at.
call today for a FREE brochure
0161873 8333
QUOTE CODE PHARM04 Lines open 7 days
28 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
S T U D I E S B E D R O O M S L I B R A R I E S L O U N G E S C I N E M A D I N I N G

f e at u r e W o m e n P h a r m a c i s t s
Eyes: Vision for the Future
Opthalmology was the theme when members of the National
Association of Women Pharmacists gathered for their Annual
Weekend Conference. Virginia Watson was there
KENIlWORTh was the
venue for the conference
featuring sessions given
by three consultant
ophthalmologists and an optometrist, covering
glaucoma, dry eye and blepharitis, age-related
macular degeneration and contact lenses. The
final session, Living with Vision Loss, was
given by Dr Nicola Hendey accompanied by
Cavendish, her canine partner/guide dog and
Beeley, aged six months, who will take over
from Cavendish when he retires.
The conference is a focal point in the
NAWP calendar, bringing members together,
not only for the clinical programme but also
to keep abreast of professional issues. This
year the law and ethics update, given by
Susan Melvin of the Professional Standards
Inspectorate, concentrated on the role of the
General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC).
There was also an overview of the
Professional Leadership Body and the
implementation of Local Practice Forums by
English Pharmacy Board member Sid Dajani.
We were joined at the Conference dinner
by Duncan Rudkin (Chief Executive and
Registrar of the GPhC) and Sid Dajani. Our
guest speaker, Paula Cornwell, a tour guide
at Stoneleigh Manor, whetted our appetites
for the Jane Austen tour organised
for us. A weekend away gives the
opportunity to bring old and new
friends together, to network and
to have fun.
At the time the association
was formed in 1905 life was
difficult for women working in
the health professions. Of the
16,000 on the Pharmaceutical
Register, women represented
less than 1.3% of the
membership and therefore
one of the association’s main objectives was
to help women gain employment. Today,
with the high proportion of women in the
profession, one might ask if there is still a
need for such an organisation?
But while our circumstances today may be
different, there is still a place for associations
to represent and support women in the
professions as illustrated by the Women’s
Engineering Society, Association of Women
Barristers, British Association of Women
in Policing etc. Interestingly, women’s
NAWP maintains
a strong voice on
women’s issues in
the wider world
pharmacist organisations have been formed
much more recently in the Netherlands (1988)
and Germany (2002), confirming this need.
NAWP has remained active continuously
since its foundation, changing its aims and
objectives as circumstances and times dictate.
So, with the changes currently taking place
within our profession, what is NAWP’s Vision
for the Future?
NAWP has always been independent of,
but maintains a good working relationship
with, the society, which has allowed
it freedom to pursue its aims and to
exert influence to promote equality of
opportunity and to improve
the status of women in the
profession.
We must now
explore and establish
how we interact with the PLB and the GPhC.
Members of the executive committee have
already met Duncan Rudkin and we plan
to meet Helen Gordon, Chief Executive
designate of the PLB, in the near future.
The NAWP has been involved in a number
of initiatives, including supporting those
returning to practice and piloting a mentoring
scheme, both of which are now on the agenda
of the PLB. We are meeting representatives of
the PLB and the English Pharmacy Board to
discuss these and share our experience.
Before long the demerger between the
regulatory and professional support functions
of the RPSGB will be complete. This has
been an unprecedented road to travel and
the NAWP has maintained a keen and active
interest, kept members updated via the
Newsletter and contributed to consultations.
We will continue to participate in and
contribute to any future consultations affecting
the profession and practice of pharmacy.
Through our involvement with nonpharmaceutical
women’s organisations,
NAWP maintains a strong voice on women’s
issues in the wider world. Only a few months
ago, two members of the executive committee
attended the Women’s National Commission
All Partners Conference to discuss the
economy, the Equality Bill, women in power
and violence against women. This link
that NAWP has into the wider network is
a fundamental and important aspect of our
organisation.
Nurture and develop
Having worked in the global environment of
the industry for a number of years, I believe
it is important that we nurture and develop
interaction with our colleagues in other
countries. Five years ago we were invited to
attend and to speak at the second meeting of
European Women Pharmacists. Since then, an
increasing number of NAWP members have
attended and actively participated in these
annual meetings. During the next few years
we will be working on a number of initiatives
with our colleagues elsewhere in Europe.
These meetings have enabled a comparison
of pharmacy education, practice, workforce
demographics and career development in
other European countries. There are many
frustrations regarding pharmacy ownership
and lack of representation of women in
key leadership or senior management posts
amongst our European colleagues.
Mentor the young
The glass ceiling is widespread. In the
UK, women are being encouraged to enter
public life, or to ‘break into the boardroom’,
but progress is slow. Interestingly, though,
there have been eight women Presidents of
the RPSGB, all of whom have been or are
members of the NAWP and we number past
and current council members as well as a few
in public life amongst our membership.
Is there still a role for NAWP to support,
encourage and mentor the young, ambitious
women in our profession? I believe so.
But there are gender issues which perhaps
do not readily spring to mind. There is
increasing emphasis on subgroup analyses
by gender in clinical trials as outcomes may
differ between men and women in a number
of therapeutic areas. The EC needs to consider
whether there is scope for NAWP to become
more involved in working with other groups
to communicate the importance of genderrelated
treatments.
On a day-to-day basis our main focus is to
support our members. The EC communicates
regularly with the membership through the
Newsletter, and encourages members to meet
informally at a local level.
We cross every sector of the pharmacy
world and have a wealth of experience
amongst our members, which we continue to
share. In common with so many organisations
we would like to increase our membership,
not just amongst young women who may
need support with career development, career
breaks or in juggling their domestic/ work
commitments, but with members across the
whole age spectrum, who can bring their
own strengths and qualities to NAWP and the
wider professional network. n
30 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 31

p r a c t i c e g u i d a n c e h o m e o p at h y
Homeopathic and
Herbal Preparations
There are strongly held views for and against.
The RPS Science and Research team report
HoMEoPATHy is a topic that
invokes strongly held views both
for and against its benefits, and
this polarisation of views also extends to
the interpretation of data from randomised
clinical trials, systematic reviews, and metaanalyses
in which the clinical efficacy of
homeopathy is assessed.
In January 2009, RPSGB’s Science
Committee decided to examine the science
and published clinical evidence for
homeopathy as part of its work programme.
At its meeting in May 2009, Science
Committee reviewed the evidence for
homeopathy and concluded that there was
no scientific basis for homeopathy and no
convincing evidence for its clinical efficacy
from randomised clinical trials.
Coincidently, in early November 2009
RPSGB received an invitation to give oral
evidence to the House of Commons Science
and Technology (S&T) Select Committee in
their evidence check on homoeopathy; Prof
Jayne Lawrence, Chief Scientific Advisor
presented the RPSGB’s oral evidence late
November 2009. To support the RPSGB’s
oral evidence, written evidence was prepared
by the RPSGB’s Science and Research team
which drew heavily from the work of, and
external expertise available on, Science
Committee (http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/pdfs/
homeopathyRPSGBrespHoC.pdf).
Placebo effect
The House of Commons S&T Select
Committee published its findings on its
evidence check on homeopathy in February
2010 (http://www.publications.parliament.uk/
pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmsctech/45/45.pdf)
and reported that the evidence base shows
that homeopathy is not efficacious beyond
the placebo effect, and that explanations
for why homeopathy would work are
scientifically implausible. The report also
concluded that further clinical trials of
homeopathy could not be justified, that the
NHS should stop funding homeopathy, and
that the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should not
allow homeopathic product labels to make
medical claims without evidence of efficacy.
Indeed as homeopathic products are not
medicines, the Committee suggested they
should not be licensed by the MHRA. The
evidence submitted by RPSGB agreed with
the majority of the findings of the House of
Commons S&T Committee.
In advance of the publication of the
Science and Technology Committee’s
report on homeopathy, RPSGB’s Science
and Research team prepared Advice for
Pharmacists on Homeopathic and Herbal
Products (http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/pdfs/
homeoherbalprodadviceforpharmacists.pdf)
that included information to support and
prepare pharmacists for enquiries likely to
be received from the public regarding media
reports of the S&T committee findings.
This document was based on the main
recommendations in the House of Commons
report together with what is considered to be
good pharmacy practice.
This concept goes
against scientific
understanding of
how medicines act
at a molecular level
Whilst the RPSGB does not endorse
homeopathy as a form of treatment,
it does accept that patient choice is
important and realises that patients often
turn to complementary medicines, such
as homoeopathy, when conventional
medicine has been unable or unsuccessful in
controlling disease or symptoms.
When reviewing the literature for
homeopathy and other complementary
medicines for the Science Committee
meeting in September 2009, several
references noted that the public frequently
confuse homeopathy with herbal medicine, a
situation with which many pharmacists will
be familiar. This confusion is most probably
a consequence of homoeopathic products
often being derived from herbs and called
by their botanical name e.g. both herbal
and homoeopathic preparations prepared
using aloe will be called aloe, and because
a single manufacturer may produce both
homoeopathic and herbal products.
Homoeopathy is a holistic complementary
therapy based on three main principles,
namely that like cures like, the minimal
dose, and the use of a single medicine.
Homeopaths believe that the more dilute
a homeopathic product, the more potent
it becomes, and that this potentisation
requires a series of dilution and succussion
stages. This concept goes against scientific
understanding of how medicines act at a
molecular level. While most homeopathic
preparations are highly diluted, or ultradilute,
some preparations can be of low dilution,
giving them compositions similar to herbal
preparations.
Herbal medicine is the use of plant remedies
in the treatment of disease, and many currently
used conventional medicines have their origins
in herbal preparations and plant materials.
Herbal medicines subscribe to dose-response
pharmacology where the biological response
varies in direct proportion to the dose or
concentration of the remedy.
Prescription
Thus, the main difference between herbal
and homoeopathic preparations is that with
herbal medicines, increasing the dose would
be expected to increase the therapeutic
effect, while for homoeopathic products, the
more the preparation is diluted, the greater
the effect homeopaths expect the product to
have. In addition, homeopaths believe the
dilution and succussion steps involved in the
preparation of a homoeopathic product are
critical to the effectiveness of the preparation.
Furthermore, due to the different philosophies
used in selecting a treatment for a condition,
it would be reasonably expected that herbal
and homoeopathic preparations could not be
used to treat the same condition, although this
is not always the case in practice.
The differences between homeopathic and
herbal preparations are described in a table in
the Advice for Pharmacists on Homeopathic
and Herbal Products guidance document on
the RPSGB website. Examples of differences
include how a particular product is selected,
how the dose affects the efficacy of the
remedy, the safety of the products and their
potential side effects, whether they are
likely to interact with prescription or other
medicines, and whether they are safe to take
in pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
In the future, and based on the findings of
the House of Commons Select Committee
report on homeopathy, RPSGB would
support approaching the MHRA regarding
the labelling and licensing of herbal and
homeopathic products, to strive for the
removal of indications from homeopathic
products, and to ensure labelling makes the
difference between herbal and homeopathic
products clear, all of which would help in
ensuring the public understand the differences
between herbal and homeopathic products. n
l For a quick reference guide go to
www.rpharms.com
32 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 33

f e at u r e P h a r m a c y i n va n c o u v e r
Pharmacy the Canadian way
Community Practice in Vancouver, British Columbia, Susan Youssef
explores life for pharmacists on Canada’s West Coast
BritiSH Columbia may conjure up
images of moose, maple syrup, ski
slopes and grizzly bears in your
mind but it’s not all like that. Leaving aside
this Canadian quintessential, I was fortunate
to spend some time exploring pharmacy in
Vancouver on a recent visit. I wanted to share
my observations of community pharmacy
practice in this part of the world, as well as
my visit to the University of British Columbia
School of Pharmacy.
The undergraduate degree
The University of British Columbia (UBC)
is a large campus university near downtown
Vancouver, which houses the School of
Pharmacy for the province. Prior to entry to
the four-year BSc (Pharm) degree, students
must complete a science degree. UBC
prides itself on being a “case-based” degree
whereby students utilise the problem-based
style of learning.
Fourth-year students complete a 12-week
internship (eight weeks in community
pharmacy and four in either hospital or
industry placement) under the supervision of
an accredited preceptor.
Following successful completion of this
internship and after obtaining the BSc degree,
students are permitted to take the BC local
college of pharmacy board exam. On passing
this exam they are then entitled to a licence
to practice as a pharmacist. Once registered,
a pharmacist can earn between CA$ 38-65
per hour.
Community Pharmacy Practice
Pharmacists who choose to practice in the
community sector frequently work for large
chains, such as Safeway, Zellers, London
Drugs or Shoppers Drug Mart. The pharmacy
team consists of pharmacists, technicians
and fourth year pharmacy students in stores
with accredited preceptors. However, unlike
the UK’s healthcare system, the Canadian
system is based on insurance plans through
Pharmacare.
Pharmacare
The pharmacist accepts a prescription from
the patient at the front desk and also asks for
the patient’s Pharmacare card. Each patient
has an insurance plan with Pharmacare which
determines the level of care they are entitled
to. To be eligible for a Pharmacare plan a BC
resident must have a Medical Services Plan
and have submitted a completed income tax
return based on their personal income from
two years previously.
Each patient pays the full cost of
prescriptions until they reach a level known
as their deductible. Once the deductible
is reached Pharmacare starts to provide
assistance with drug costs. For example,
if the net annual family income is over
CA$30,000 the family deductible will
be equal to 3% of the net income (i.e.
CA$1000). Once this deductible has been
reached, Pharmacare would provide 70%
coverage of drug costs for the rest of the year.
‘PharmaNet’
At the point of dispensing, the pharmacist
checks the patient’s Pharmacare plan using
‘PharmaNet’. This enables the pharmacist
to charge the patient the correct price for
their medication based on their deductible.
All pharmacies in BC have access to
‘PharmaNet’, allowing them to see all
prescriptions dispensed for that patient within
BC. This minimises the potential for drug
interactions which result from prescriptions
being dispensed by multiple pharmacies.
Other information stored on ‘PharmaNet’
includes drug allergies, clinical conditions,
Æ
34 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 35

f e at u r e P h a r m a c y i n va n c o u v e r
30-day RISK-FREE
home audition and
Interest-free monthly
instalments
Prescriptions for
controlled drugs
have to be on a
standardised form
and are valid only
for five days
30 reasons to love a
BOSE ® WAVE ® music system - DAB
… although you’ll only need one:
How it sounds
dispensing history and patients’ demographics.
Both pharmacists and doctors have access to
‘PharmaNet’. This allows a prescriber to view
dispensing details of the prescription they have
just written for the patient. ‘PharmaNet’ also
ensures that pharmacies are reimbursed their
dispensing costs within a week.
Prescription Dispensing Process
Once the pharmacist has completed these
steps the prescription is scanned onto the
patient’s record. For instance a prescription
for a long-term condition whereby the patient
requires medication on a monthly basis will
stipulate a number of refills. The number of
refills equates to the number of times that a
single prescription can be dispensed.
The patient is permitted to have their
prescription refills at any pharmacy in BC and
Canada style
A typical grocery
store pharmacy
(above); dispensary
showing large pots
of tablets (left)
the request for a refill can be done online using
a secure site. The pharmacy computer system
will identify the number of patients requesting
their refills each day. All that is left to do is the
dispensing of the refill which awaits collection
by the patient. As all prescriptions are scanned
in any pharmacist would be able to view the
original prior to dispensing.
Prescriptions for controlled drugs have to
be on a standardised form and are valid only
for five days. The remaining prescription
requirements, quantity, strength, form etc.,
are similar to those in the UK. CDs dispensed
are recorded in a register and records are kept
for three years. As in the UK, CDs have to be
kept under lock and key.
I noticed that the Canadians are not opioid
shy, with several patients taking CDs, the
most common being hydromorphone and
oxycodone. A sign stating “MINIMUM
OXYCONTIN IN STOCK.” was present
in all pharmacies, to deter addicts who have
been known to hold pharmacists at gunpoint
and demand that they hand over all the
“oxies” in stock, particularly oxycontin.
Somewhat unsettling!
It was interesting to see, too, that
dispensing was based on the use of large pots
of tablets, a practice that we have moved
away from in the UK since the introduction
of patient packs.
Overall, although the ‘PharmaNet’ system
in BC is enviable, I felt that community
practice there still has a little way to go
before it is able to match our current state
of practice in the UK, which has advanced a
great deal in recent years, particularly with
the introduction of patient focused services
that appropriately utilise the skills of the
pharmacist.
The pharmacist’s role in BC mainly
revolves around dispensing. Perhaps the
combination of BC’s ‘PharmaNet’ and the
UK’s community pharmacy services would
create a world-class pharmacy model? n
l Susan Youssef is a community pharmacist
at Dean and Smedley, Derby and Senior
Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at DeMontfort
University, Leicester.
At the time of going to press the rate for
Canadian dollars was about 1.53 to the £.
There are five plans of coverage under
‘Pharmacare’, details of which can be found
at www.health.gov.bc.ca/pharmacare/plans/
index.html.
Shown in Graphite Grey
without hideaway DAB module
30 reasons to love
1 Bose quality sound with...
2 ...Bose-Proprietary waveguide
speaker technology
3 Plug in and play simplicity
4 No speaker cables
5 Credit card-sized remote control
6 No bigger than a shoebox
7 Available in three colour options
30 years of research
The BOSE ® WAVE ® music system - DAB is packed with some of the
world’s most advanced acoustic engineering. 30 years of continuous
development have endowed it with a host of considerate features.
Its remote control is intuitive and easy to use. The volume ramps
smoothly to the desired level as you turn it on. Its anti-glare display
self-adjusts to suit the ambient light level around it. It has a back-up
power supply so you can trust its alarm function. It has dozens of
thoughtful qualities that will fit seamlessly into your life so that you’ll
barely notice they’re there. But nothing will prepare you for the way
the BOSE ® WAVE ® music system - DAB sounds: a rich, room filling
performance you’d never expect from a system so small and so
simple to use.
Bose-patented dual-tapered waveguide technology creates a clear,
clean, accurate sound reproducing the highest registers and lowest
resonances of your music with the depth and nuance you’d expect of
a much larger system. Very soon you could find the BOSE ® WAVE ® music
system - DAB becomes the primary music system in your home.
Shown in Titanium Silver
with hideaway DAB module
8 High performance digital tuner
9 Built-in FM and AM antennas
10 Digital tuner with 6 DAB pre-sets
11 … and six pre-sets for AM
12 … another six for FM
13 … and six snooze settings
14 Talk radio audio mode
15 Slot-loading CD player
Shown in Platinum White
with hideaway DAB module
“The sound is punchy & impressive …
its ability to fill a room is quite astonishing …
all one could want from a system of this kind.”
16 CD/MP3-CD/CD-RW playback
17 Multiple CD play modes
18 Automatic ramping volume
19 An instant mute button
20 Large, clear visual display
21 Your choice of clock formats
22 15 adjustable brightness settings
23 Display dims in dark conditions
30 days to be impressed
But the only way to experience the sound of a BOSE ® WAVE ® music
system - DAB is to enjoy it for yourself. Send for one today: when it
arrives, plug it in, switch it on and listen. Try your favourite CDs or tune
into any DAB, AM or FM radio station and if, after 30 days, it hasn’t
impressed you in every aspect of its performance, call us: we’ll collect
it and refund you, no questions asked.
Call now to ask how you can receive a
FREE pair of BOSE ® around-ear headphones worth £99
when you order before 30th June 2010
Featuring advanced ergonomics, these stylish
lightweight headphones are ideal for use at home,
at work or on the go. With an adjustable
headband, flexible swivel ear cups and super-soft
cushions, they'll remain comfortable for hours
throughout even the longest listening session.
Gramophone magazine
24 iPod/iPhone connection and
CD-changer options
25 Auxiliary component input jack
26 Integral headphone jack
27 BOSE ® link connectivity port
28 Power-saving back-up mode
29 Back-up settings memory
30 Magnetic field shielded speakers
Call ✆ free on 0800 081 3496 today
quoting reference 17141 and find out more about our:
✓ 30 day risk-free home trial
✓ Easy interest-free instalment plan *
Mon-Fri: 9.00am – 6.30pm Sat & Sun 10.00am - 5.00pm
Or for a free information pack
✉ Text ‘Bose17141’ to 84118
Visit: www.bose.co.uk/wms
36 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
*Instalment plan available on credit / debit cards only and is subject to status. An initial deposit is due at the time of order and payments will be charged to your credit / debit
card. There will be no interest charges from Bose but in the event of late payment credit / debit card company charges may apply. Price / Payment Plan / FREE pair of BOSE ®
around-ear headphones offer subject to change without notice. If the product is returned FREE pair of BOSE ® around-ear headphones must also be returned for a full refund.
©2010 Bose Corporation. All rights reserved. Risk-free refers to 30-day home trial. WAVE ® music system is registered trademark of Bose Corporation in the US and other
countries. Registered in England no 1187672. Registered Office: Bose Ltd, 1 Ambley Green, Gillingham Business Park, Gillingham, Kent ME8 0NJ. Quotes reprinted with permission:
Gramophone Magazine, 08/2005.

lifestyle
contents
39 Travel
Art and design in Copenhagen
44 Fashion
All about colour
45 Taxing
How to protect your cash
44 Time travel
How to trace your family tree
48 Watches
A British maker to seek out
50 Gadgets
To look out for
51 Health food
Mountain views, summer feasts
52 Transport
Drop tops for summer
55 The Arts
Pharmacy in literature
56 Offers/crossword
For members only
High style in
Copenhagen
Designer icons, great food and wonderful
views, Denmark has it all says Jeff Mills
The high-speed train from the airport
glides to a halt at Copenhagen’s Central
station, the automatic doors whisper open,
letting in the chill air. I collect my bag,
disembark and walk through the squeakyclean
concourse and out of the main exit.
So far, so good. Then I look across the
road, searching for my hotel. Convenient, it
may be, just as I had been told, but I can’t
help wondering what could possibly have
possessed me to book a room at such a
concrete monstrosity?
From the outside the Radisson SAS
Royal hotel looks like nothing so much Æ
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
39

t r av e l C O P e n H A G e n
Tranquility Varied faces of Denmark
History Palaces and the Old Port area
a 1960’s block of inner-city council flats,
albeit a fairly smart one. It may be in one of
central Copenhagen’s best areas, just across
the road from the Tivoli pleasure gardens, but
as I gaze up at the bleak façade, just why the
design-loving Danes think so highly of this
unappetising block completely escapes me.
Arne Jacobsen
But outside appearances can deceive and this
is no exception. This is no ordinary high rise.
No sooner have I stepped inside and it becomes
instantly obvious why this hotel’s fame has
spread far and wide. The word “cool” may be
over used now but this is where it all started.
This building is a prime example of what
happened around 45 years ago when big-name
Scandinavian designer Arne Jacobsen was
asked to work his magic on the interior of what
is pretty well the only skyscraper in the Danish
capital.
Mind you, if you had visited the hotel, slap
bang in the centre of Copenhagen’s heart,
just a few years ago you could still have
been forgiven for thinking you had made a
major mistake. You would probably have
been disappointed to have found Jacobsen’s
internationally-renowned design masterpieces,
such as the Swan and Egg chairs, suffering
badly from the ravages of time and fighting
for floor space with less than inspiring later
additions from the standard hotel furnishing
catalogues.
But now that the Radisson is well into its
forties and Jacobsen, whose many admirers
have now finished celebrating the centenary of
his birth, has taken on a nearly god-like status
among the international design community, the
hotel chain spent a tidy sum refurbishing the
SAS Royal, not exactly in Jacobsen’s original
design but based very closely on it. The result
is an outstanding piece of living history in a
very impressive modern hotel, ideal as the base
for a few days in Denmark’s capital city.
If you really yearn to take yourself back to
the 1960s, ask for room 606 on the sixth floor
of the building, which has been left exactly as
it was when the hotel first opened its doors,
except it is now possibly even better. The
design guru’s furniture has been carefully
refurbished, the walls have been re-painted in
the original colours and even the carpet has
been specially woven in exactly the same way
as that on the floor on opening day.
If, on the other hand, you are more
concerned with up-to-the-minute efficiency, if
not exactly luxury, choose any of the standard
rooms or suites on the upper floors and you
will find a pleasant mixture of bright modern
design and function, all based loosely on
Jacobsen’s ideas.
If you want to see more of his originals,
however, visit the small but important
museum-style collection within the hotel itself.
Half an hour trawling through the exhibits left
me amazed at just how many design icons
have his name on them.
The reworking of the Radisson is just one
of the latest parts of the renaissance which has
been quietly bubbling away in Copenhagen for
the past few years and which went on the boil
in 2000 when, in a hail of publicity, the first
fixed link between the Danish city and Malmo
in Sweden – the Oresund Bridge – opened to
both rail and road traffic, cutting the journey
time between the two metropolises to just over
half an hour by either method.
Land at Copenhagen’s airport, on the Danish
side of the bridge, thought by many to be the
most important international hub in the deep
north of Europe, and you can be in the centre
of either city in 15 minutes. This means it is
now not only possible but indeed very easy to
stay in one and visit both.
One effect of the long-awaited bridge
was an almost unprecedented rush to get in
planning applications for hotels, not only
in and around Copenhagen’s central area
but also near the airport, yet another sign
of the boom taking place in the city and its
Swedish neighbour after too many years of
complacently sitting in a backwater.
Little Mermaid
Copenhagen, in particular, has undergone the
biggest change in image. No longer do visitors
leave with memories of little more than the
famous Little Mermaid – much smaller than
you may imagine – the Royal Palace, the
Tivoli amusement gardens, open sandwiches,
Carlsberg lager and, in winter at least, bitterly
cold weather. Æ
40 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
41

t r av e l C O P e n H A G e n
Sceneic Ancient rituals and modern style
Sightseeing Old buildings and new power sources
While Jacobsen’s
Radisson Royal may
still reign supreme
in the city centre
it now finds itself
competing for
travellers’ patronage
with a number of
more recent hotels
Visit now and you are just as likely to be
telling your friends back home about the
wonderful restaurant scene, super-cool bars, hitech
design museums and countless interesting
modern buildings blending perfectly with the
historic ones.
Old world charm
While Jacobsen’s Radisson Royal may still
reign supreme in the city centre it now finds
itself competing for travellers’ patronage with
a number of more recent hotels, including the
three-star Copenhagen Strand, the four-star
Copenhagen Airport Hilton and the five-star
Copenhagen Marriott as well as the Skt.
Petri which has taken over the former Daells
department store in the centre of Copenhagen.
And this is before you take account of the
hotels undergoing major renovation and the
others either planned or under construction
across in Sweden in the Malmo area. It is
developments such as these which are the
main motivation for the two cities in different
countries, for years strictly competitors, to
use the opening of the bridge as an excuse
to market themselves together, a relationship
which seems to be working remarkably well.
The idea is that, with the airport and the
train serving both, it really does not matter
which of the two you stay in as you can now
visit both very easily.
The reality, however, is not so
straightforward. Even though transportation
between Copenhagen and Malmo is quick
and easy, Copenhagen is still the best place
to make your base, unless you are on a
very tight budget indeed, in which case you
may be better off opting for the Swedish
side where hotels, restaurants and all the
other essentials of life for visitors tend to be
cheaper than in Copenhagen.
In fairness Malmo does have an undeniable
old world charm and some passable nightlife,
but Copenhagen is the place where it all really
happens both during the day and after hours.
It is also a very easy city to get around. In the
city itself taxis are plentiful and can be found
at major hotels as well as in main tourist areas
as well as cruising the streets and if you fancy
an excursion further afield there is a good
network of buses and trains.
And forget much of what you may have
heard about the blandness of Danish food,
the offerings in the city’s restaurants, though
far from inexpensive, are inspired now more
by the French than the more traditional
smorgasbord, though you will still find an
excellent choice of fish and dairy products
plus, of course, meatballs.
Open sandwiches
If you want to splash out on a real gourmet
treat head for the Kommanddanten restaurant
in Adelgade Street, particularly famed for its
traditional herrings and other fish. If you are
a meat lover try Grabrodre Torv 21 where
specialities include roast pork served with red
cabbage or meatballs with new potatoes.
If on the other hand you really do yearn for
Danish open sandwiches, or smorrebrod, at
lunchtime, Ida Davidsen has a choice so large
that the menu is about six feet long.
And after all that you can take a stroll
through the quaint old Tivoli gardens, one of
Europe’s original amusement parks, across
the road from both Copenhagen’s Central rail
station and the Radisson SAS Royal hotel,
which still pulls in the crowds after more than
a century. n
l You can book rooms at the Radisson
on 00800 33333333 or via the company’s
website,www.radissonsas.com.
More information on Copenhagen is
available at www.visitcopenhagen.com.
42 Pharmacy Professional | July 2010
July 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
43

p h a r m a c y f a s h i o n
p e r s o n a l f i n a n c e
Suits you Sir and Madam
Bring some colour into your working day says Michelle Nicholls
Season
Spring
warm
palette
Summer
cool
palette
Autumn
warm
palette
Winter
cool
palette
Skin
Warm
with subtle
golden
undertones,
creamy light
or peach
Cool and
pale with
blue or
rosy pink
undertones
Warm skin
colour with
golden
undertones
Cool skin
with blue
or pink
undertones
in pale
porcelain
white,
yellowy olive
or dark
Hair
Golden
blonde,
auburn or
strawberry
Natural
blonde
or light
brunette
Redhead or
brunette, but
sometimes
dark golden
blonde
Brunette or
black
Eyes
Light and
clear blue or
green
Pale
Warm
brown or
hazel
Dark
Suits
Warm
colours
with yellow
undertones.
Also strong,
true colours
like letterbox
red
Soft and
natural hues,
including
pastels and
pale colours,
in cool tones
Rich, spicy
colours and
anything
natural and
woody.
Earthy tones
compliment
well
Intense
and strong
colours, or
bright icy
sorbets,
with blue
undertones
Avoid
Muted,
dull or dark
colours
present
too high a
contrast
Harsh
colours,
neon tones
and black
will drown
out this
complexion
Pastel
colours
and blue
tones look
too cold in
contrast
Earthy and
neutral
tones can
make this
complexion
appear
faded
It’s already July and whether British summers
are a sunny success or a rainy wash-out, there
has never been a better time to ditch your dreary
work wardrobe in favour of something a little
more colourful and vibrant.
Whether it’s a full assault of cheery bright
colours such as bold pink, green, orange and red
or just a little flash of a summery hue, there’s no
excuse to not brighten up your days at work.
Which season are you?
Many people are unsure how to wear bright
colours and patterns, especially for everyday work
wear, but by using your complexion as a guide
there is a colour palette to suit everyone that can
lift your mood, make you feel more confident, and
express your personality.
Take a look at the chart below and work out
which ‘colour season’ suits you best and how you
can make the best of it.
Don’t shy away!
If you find yourself shying away from bright
colours in the worry that they’ll make you stand
out in a crowd, or you’ll look too garish, then you
simply haven’t found the right way to wear them
yet. Instead of a full colour outfit, try wearing
simple flashes of colour with your shoes and
accessories.
You could, for example, wear a bright belt or
contrasting sandals, either of which will add a
colourful accent to a plain black dress and bring
it to life. Or a bold patterned skirt will beautifully
complement a simple plain blouse.
For men, the addition of a stylish colourful or
patterned tie will draw attention away from a plain
grey, navy blue or black suit and uplift your whole
image.
A key piece such as a bright bag, a patterned
scarf or colourful shoes never fails to add a
splash of confidence and some real personality
to an outfit, and even the smallest details on a
gentleman’s attire, such as stylish cufflinks or
coloured socks, can brighten the entire outfit.
What’s the trick?
It’s simple. The trick is to be bold and daring
when wearing colours and in turn they will make
you feel confident and positive.
So let’s all hope for the anticipated sunny
summer, which we have certainly earned after the
drama of last winter’s snow days. But even if the
reality turns out to be a cold and rainy experience,
you could always invest in a colourful coat to keep
you looking bright and cheery throughout it all! n
Taxing problems
Never mind higher rates of capital gains tax, says
Miranda Green. We’ve got some better ideas
THE government is in the biggest fiscal
hole since the end of the Second World
War. It has two main fillers to fix this
hole – cutting spending, and raising taxes.
And because the hole is so wide, and so
deep, it needs all the filler it can get. Taxing
gains on share ownership would have been
anathema to any Conservative government
had this crisis not required some extreme
measures, but the question we must all
address now is, what’s the best way forward?
First, things are not as bad as they could
have been. As we go to press, the details
of the Emergency Budget have not been
released but an increase in CGT on shares
is almost a nailed-on certainty. The good
news is that the threshold over which gains
are taxed is also a nailed-on certainty to be
higher than the £2,000 limit proposed by the
Lib-Dems.
Having the threshold in place means
you need to sell any assets strategically, if
you can, rather than dumping them all at
once. Eking out the sales of assets over a
few years means you won’t be clobbered,
and those who are married can also transfer
assets to their spouses to use their allowance
too. It also means making full use of your
ISA allowance each and every year.
A good bet
All well and good. But how do you invest for
the future? It’s conceivable that even once the
government deficit is paid down (and even
the most optimistic commentators put that at
two parliaments, even with solid economic
growth), the tax will remain in place.
If you want to play a long-term game,
then the tax breaks on investing in
pensions, while also coming under Mr
Osborne’s scrutiny for higher-rate tax
payers, represent a good bet. There is some
optimism within the pensions industry that
compulsory annuities will be phased out,
which means that investing in pensions
becomes a means of building wealth for
generations, as opposed to the current
situation where the annuity passes to any
surviving spouse when you die, but then
to the government when he or she passes
away. Meanwhile you get tax relief on
anything you save, and if you arrange a
self-invested personal pension (SIPP) there
is a broad range of assets you can set aside
for your retirement.
Interest to investors
Of course, those investments touted by the
government don’t attract CGT. You can buy
government bonds (gilts) to your heart’s
content, as long as your heart is content with
solid, but deeply unspectacular, returns.
And the income is taxable as well. National
Savings & Investments, including premium
bonds, do not attract tax but the only
product that might be of genuine interest to
investors, given that most economists predict
that price inflation in the UK is inevitable,
is an index-linked certificate. If they are
wrong – entirely possible – then deflation
does not eat into your capital – those kind
types at NS&I ignore its effect and add on
the guaranteed element of interest.
But the short-term presents more
problems. Some investable items do not
attract capital gains because the Revenue
classes them as ‘wasting assets’. Fine wine
is one – it’s easy to invest via a broker
like Farr Vintners or specialist investment
company like Premier Cru. Top-class claret
returns have been about 15% per year on
average over the past decade, but do trade
with a reputable company.
It’s a similar story with some antiques,
including some classic cars, and specialist
items like classic toys, and again seek advice
before investing.
In times of crisis investors flock to gold,
and the price is already looking frothy. But
if we see the return of high inflation then
gold is a good hedge against it. Holding
sovereigns is a tax-efficient way of investing
because they are still treated as circulating
currency (try that at Tesco…) so there’s no
capital gains tax.
Another way to play the stock market
without physically buying and selling
shares, and therefore eating up any
allowance you have, is spread betting.
Financial spread betting is free from CGT,
stamp duty and commission – the company
takes its ‘margin’ from the spread. Here’s
how it works. A spread betting company,
such as Cantor Index, quotes a price for
Acme plc of 100p-101p. The difference is
the spread between the buy and sell price.
If you think Acme is going to plummet,
you sell at 100p, with your bet pegged to
the price per penny it falls. So if you sell at
£5 per point, and it falls to 80p, you have
made £100. But if it rises, and you decide
to close your bet at 105p, you have lost
£25. Potential losses while shorting are
theoretically limitless, while losses betting
on a rise are limited to the stock falling to a
value of zero. In practice, you either need to
monitor your bets closely, or set stop-losses
– limits that you set which ‘knock out’
your bet to limit your loss. You can trade a
wide variety of assets, from commodities
to foreign exchange, equity indices like the
Dow or FTSE, and individual stocks.
Spread betting companies are reporting a
massive rise in enquiries from ordinary folk
who have no knowledge or experience of
trading products like these, but the bookies
are viewing it as a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to help people and drive more
customers into the asset class. My advice is
don’t rush in, but don’t be too afraid to tread
either. n
44 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
45

f e at u r e f a m i ly t r e e
Time Travelling
How to get started with your family tree
For many people, the biggest hurdle when researching their family
tree is starting the whole process off. There are so many places to
look, so where do you begin? Simon Wills has some suggestions
AvITAL first move is to sketch out
your family tree as far as you know
it, then speak to elderly relatives
who may be able to fill in the gaps. It’s
important to make notes when you speak
to others, or even record the interview, so
that you have something to refer back to.
Pay attention to any unusual family myths,
half-remembered names, or anecdotes that
you come across because these often have
a foundation in fact. You should also ask as
many relatives as possible whether they have
any old family documents or photographs that
they can share.
In these days of cheap scanners and digital
cameras it’s easy to make quick copies, and
it’s vital to gather these pieces of evidence
before they are lost and while someone can
still identify the people involved. Photographs
can tell you a lot about occupations, military
service and relationships – they also make your
research more personal and help to establish a
connection with your ancestors. Relatives may
have a Bible with a family tree sketched into it
or copies of marriage certificates and these are
particularly valuable.
Your own surname
At an early stage you need to decide which
surnames you are going to research. For
example, you may opt to focus exclusively
on the surname you were given at birth, or on
your mother’s parents’ names. The choice is
likely to be determined by your own interests
– perhaps you want to see how far back you
can go with your own surname, or maybe you
have a great grandparent who is rumoured to
have had a colourful past. It is often easier
to investigate unusual surnames, so you may
have a harder time if you are researching a
Smith rather than an Edevane. However, once
you’ve ‘exhausted’ one surname you can
always go back and choose another from a
different branch of the family.
You will very quickly lose the ability to
keep everything in your head, so before too
much information accumulates, you should
buy a database to record everything. Popular
examples include Family Historian, Family
Tree Maker, and Who Do You Think You Are?
Your next step is to look at censuses.
These have been conducted every 10 years
since 1841 and those from this date until 1911
are available to view online. Amongst other
Since 1837, it has been
a legal requirement
to register all births,
marriages and deaths
in England and Wales
things, the census will tell you where your
ancestor lived, their age, occupation, whether
they were married or not and the names of
spouses and children living with them. It can
throw up a few surprises: Perhaps you’ll find
an ancestor who lived in a ‘poor house’ or
that ran his or her own business.
There is a range of online providers of
census materials including www.ancestry.
co.uk and www.findmypast.co.uk. These
and other companies also provide a range of
additional records as part of a subscription.
You ought to look carefully at what they
provide before joining. Many of them offer a
free introductory trial.
Since 1837, it has been a legal requirement
to register all births, marriages and deaths
in England and Wales. Many of these civil
records have been indexed online by www.
freebmd.org.uk, especially for the nineteenth
century. This is an easy database to search
because it is indexed by name, date and
location, but crucially it enables you to
request copies of original birth, marriage and
death certificates from the General Register
Office (for a fee). These certificates provide
useful information – marriage certificates
are especially valuable because they will
give you the names of the bride and groom’s
fathers. Different sources are used for
Scotland.
Before civil registration, church records
are your major source for tracing births,
marriages and deaths. Some parish
documents date back as far as 1538 but
unfortunately many of the earliest registers
are in bad condition or have been destroyed.
Church records vary quite a lot in the amount
of detail they offer – it depends partly on
the era, and partly on the inclinations of the
clergyman who kept them. Some ministers
recorded ages in burial registers for example,
whereas others did not. All the same it is
possible to use a combination of civil and
parish records to pursue your ancestors back
through time.
When you find details about a birth, use
the parents’ names to look back through the
registers for their marriage. This, in turn,
should give you clues to help you look for
both partners’ births and therefore the names
of their parents. You can keep repeating this
process, if you are lucky.
Parish registers can be consulted at a
range of family history centres or archive
services. Local government websites usually
list publicly funded ones in the vicinity, but
there are also a large number of privately run
family history societies that have indexed
church records. You can find your nearest one
at www.ffhs.org.uk for England, Wales and
Ireland, or www.safhs.org.uk for Scotland.
Various other projects also provide online
partial indexes to certain parish registers.
These include http://freereg.rootsweb.
com/, www.familysearch.org and www.
onlineparishclerks.org.uk
Family history centres run by councils or
private history societies also hold a wealth
of other local records. Typically these would
include for example, legal records, copies
of old newspapers and specialist collections
about particular local families or towns.
Prepare carefully
The National Archives at Kew in London is
the largest single repository of family records.
It holds many sources, such as military
records, apprenticeship papers, copies of
wills, and accounts of criminal trials. A
detailed description of holdings can be found
on its website at www.nationalarchives.gov.
uk, which also includes a series of detailed
Research Guides on everything from the
Admiralty to the slave trade.
It is well-worth a visit, but it is important
to prepare carefully before you travel
because the amount of material available is
so extensive: You must plan your day. Note
also that you need to register and receive a
security clearance to see many documents,
so make sure you read about how to do this
before you arrive.
The National Archives runs free
introductory talks every day to help you
get the best from what’s available and these
are well worth attending. Some of their
material is indexed by name and available
to download online for a fee; there is also
an overall index to contents of the National
Archive, called The Catalogue, at www.
nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue.
Once you really begin to dig into your
family’s past you will find a whole host of
specialist organisations and websites which
will allow you to take your researches further.
The National Maritime Museum in London,
for example, has a major collection of
materials related to Britain’s nautical heritage
and www.ancestorsonboard.com has indexes
of British people who sailed abroad after 1890.
Researching your family tree will prove
to be intriguing and complex, but it teaches
you new skills, is immensely rewarding, and
brings history alive like nothing else. n
l Simon Wills is a journalist who writes
on social and maritime history. He is also
a pharmacist at Southampton University
Hospitals.
46 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 47

f e at u r e wat c h e s
About time
A British watch company in the making
Awareness of an expensive watch usually comes
through full page advertisements in upmarket
glossy magazines, so it came as a surprise to
learn about a young British watch company
while reading a book about social media. But
then, as Sue Heady discovered, Christopher
Ward is not your average watch brand
ChrISTOpher Ward has turned the
expensive watch brand model on its
head in its efforts to create what it
describes as “the cheapest expensive watch in
the world”. The idea for the company came
about on a boat on the River Thames in 2004;
its first office was a disused chicken shed.
You’re starting to get the picture...
In the early noughties, Christopher Ward,
together with Mike France and Peter Ellis
(formerly of the Early Learning Centre),
had sold their previous companies and were
looking for a new business venture. They
came to the conclusion that whatever they
were going to make and sell had to be small
(so it could be shipped worldwide easily) and
of high value. This narrowed the opportunities
down to jewellery and watches, with watches
winning the day as they had been a passion of
Ward’s from a young age.
“My school was next door to Prescot
Museum, much of which is dedicated to
the history of watch-and clock-making
in the town, and I used to pop in there
regularly on my way home in the afternoon.
I was fascinated by the workings of the
timepieces,” recalls Ward. It’s hard to
imagine now, but Merseyside was a major
centre of watch making in the 18th and 19th
centuries, supplying the ships that plied their
trade to and from Liverpool, all of which
needed an accurate timepiece.
Researching
However, it was the rag trade in which Ward
worked when he finished his education
and it was there that he met a Swiss
watchmaker almost 30 years ago with whom
he subsequently became very good friends.
Said friend provided an entree into the
watch making industry when Ward and his
two partners decided to create Christopher
Ward. Ward, himself, spent many months
thoroughly researching the industry both
in the Far East and Switzerland, before
launching the first two models – the C5
Malvern Automatic and the C3 Malvern
Chronograph – both quintessentially British
in style, on June 4, 2004.
Now, I don’t know whether you’ve ever
noticed, but watches are a bit of an obsession
for a lot of people and this being the 21st
century, there are hundreds of internet forums
out there providing enthusiasts with the
I don’t know whether
you’ve ever noticed,
but watches are a bit
of an obsession for a
lot of people
opportunity to discus watches to their hearts’
content. So, when Christopher Ward launched
its first watches at just £99, these internet
forums went into overdrive with members
claiming that it simply wasn’t possible for a
watch claiming to be of such high quality to be
sold at such a low price.
It was only when one of the world’s most
influential watch bloggers, Dave Malone in
Australia, actually bought one of the watches
and posted a very complimentary review
online (“This watch is truly exceptional
value... It is lowly priced but beautifully
executed.”) that Christopher Ward’s arrival on
the watch scene was cemented.
Turnover has at least doubled year on
year since the company was established. In
2010, Christopher Ward is predicting sales of
between 15,000 and 20,000 watches, with a
turnover of £3.5 million, with current trading
up 70% on 2009, at a time when the Swiss
watch making industry as a whole suffered
around a 22% fall last year.
As Ward explains, “Our USP is the fact that
there is no one between us and the consumer.
We sell direct to the end user through the
internet (75-80% of our business is done on the
web, the rest is by phone), so the mark up from
product cost is 3.5. With other brands, it is 10
or 20 times the manufacturing cost, because
everyone has to take their cut, the agent, the
wholesaler, the retailer, each time multiplying
the cost to make their profit.
“In addition, a brand like Tag Heuer,
which employs brand ambassadors such as
Leonardo di Caprio and Lewis Hamilton,
spends millions on marketing through
advertising and sponsorship; our marketing
has all been done by word of mouth. In
order to get good feedback from customers,
who will talk about us positively, our
product has to be great quality and our
customer service has to be tiptop.
Assembled by hand
“Consumers are smarter these days, particularly
given the current economic climate. They
don’t want to be showing off with a flashy
Breitling, they want to be buying a quality
product at a fair price. Our watches tend to
exceed our customers’ expectations; they can’t
believe the quality they are getting for the price,
so they are happy to spread the word.”
The quality comes from the fact that every
Christopher Ward watch is assembled by hand
by skilled craftsmen in dedicated ateliers in
Switzerland’s Jura (a centre of watch-making
for 300 years), using a Swiss-made movement
that is a prerequisite of a fine watch.
When I ask Ward what differentiates his
brand from Swatch, another affordable brand
that has achieved cult status, he tells me,
“Nicolas Hayek at Swatch did a great job
in the early 1980s of inventing disposable
fashion watches, which have developed into
a collectable range, but even the Irony chrono
range (which retails for between £89 to £235)
will have lots of plastic components, while
ours are more substantial and use metal parts.
Swatch is mass produced by robots, while ours
are hand crafted and we offer luxury options
such as alligator straps, but not so Swatch.”
However, despite all its positive attributes,
Christopher Ward has still received the odd
piece of criticism. As Ward points out, “The
internet is a double-edged sword; if we get it
wrong, the online community is very quick
to point out that we’ve made a mistake and
as the man with his name attached to the
brand, it hurts”.
Famously, in the early days, one of the
2000 registered users of the dedicated
Christopher Ward forum – yes, it even
has its own forum, set up independently
by a Dutch enthusiast – nicknamed The
Terminator decided that he didn’t like the
design of a new model. He thought it would
be better with a gold case and a black face,
so Christopher Ward made a limited edition
of 100 according to his specifications
and named it The Terminator. Now, the
Christopher Ward forum organises regular
online debates where members chip in what
they would like to see in a watch, run polls
and pull together a new design that is put
into production.
This, it seems, is exactly how a successful
21st century company should be run, via the
internet and with the active participation of
its customers, building real brand loyalty.
The luxury Swiss watch brands should be
scared. Very scared. n
l www.christopherward.co.uk
48 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010 July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional 49

t e c h n o l o g y s p o t l i g h t
h e a lt h f o o d
Gadget roundup
The latest electronic marvels to watch out for
Spectacular mountain views
and healthy summer food
We head for the clear air and beautiful scenery of the Swiss Alps this
month and a recipe supplied for us by the Cambrian Hotel in Adelboden
Yamaha YSP-40D
Multi-channel surround sound enjoyment from a single compact component!
A perfect match for 42” (and upwards) flat TVs and monitors.Now with great
new features like 1080p-compatible HDMI, analogue video to HDMI digital video
upconversion, iPod compatibility, a wide variety of beam settings including My
Surround, DAB reception capability and custom installation compatibility.
www.uk.yamaha.com
iPhone® 4
The new iPhone® 4 is featuring
FaceTime, which makes the dream
of video calling a reality, and Apple’s
stunning new Retina display, the
highest resolution display ever built
into a phone, resulting in super
crisp text, images and video. In
addition, iPhone 4 features a 5
megapixel camera with LED flash,
HD video recording, Apple’s A4
processor, a 3-axis gyro and up to
40 percent longer talk time – in a
beautiful all-new design of glass and
stainless steel that is the thinnest
smartphone in the world. iPhone
4 comes with iOS 4, the newest
version of the world’s most advanced
mobile operating system, which
includes over 100 new features and
1500 new APIs for developers. iOS
4 features Multitasking, Folders,
enhanced Mail, deeper Enterprise
support and Apple’s new iAd mobile
advertising platform. iPhone 4 will
be available in the US, UK, France,
Germany and Japan on June 24.
www.apple.com
Freecom’s Hard Drive XS 3.0
When working with large amounts of data, it’s vital that
pharmacists protect important information by regularly
backing up their files. The Hard Drive XS 3.0 can transfer
data at unprecedented speeds of approximately 130 MB/s,
making it perfect for busy pharmacists who want to store
and share information in a matter of seconds and carry it
with them on the move.
In addition to being ideal for use at work, the rapid
transfer speeds of the Hard Drive XS 3.0 make it perfect for
storing and sharing all kinds of multimedia content with
family and friends – from photos and movies to an entire
music collection. Sleek and compact, the drive has been
designed in collaboration with acclaimed Belgian designer
Sylvain Willenz, and as well as offering SuperSpeed
technology, it is also the smallest 3.5” external hard drive
currently on the market.
www.freecom.com
Sennheiser HD485
Experience new sound sensations: the HD 485 are open,
circumaural headphones with exceptional sound and
outstanding comfort. The HD 485 include a headphone
holder that easily attaches to a table or shelf, making sure
that the headphones are always at hand.
www.sennheiser.com
Atypically picturesque Swiss
mountain resort, Adelboden is
filled with traditional wooden
chalets, bedecked with colourful window
boxes in summer. Lying at the end of a
valley, Adelboden has never been subjected
to passing traffic so it has remained a hidden
gem (despite being the destination for Sir
Henry Lunn’s first ski package holiday in
1903) that is definitely worth seeking out.
The first designated wellness zone in
Switzerland, Adelboden is the perfect spot
for a peaceful summer holiday. While there
are mountains to hike and mountain bike
tracks to navigate, it’s just as easy to spend
the day admiring the stunning Alpine
vistas and relaxing in one of the
many spas for which the resort
is fast becoming famous – the
Alpenbad, a state of the art
wellness zone opens in a couple
of years’ time.
New Alpine cuisine
This month’s recipe comes courtesy
of The Cambrian, Adelboden (www.
thecambrianadelboden.com), a member of
Design Hotels and the only Mr&Mrs Smith
hotel in Switzerland, which lies at the heart
of Adelboden.
Aubergine Lasagne
Serves 4 people.
Ingredients
1 large aubergine
2 cups (460 grams) flour
3 cups (690 grams) bread crumbs
5 eggs
1/2 cup (120ml) milk
1 cup (230 grams) shredded mozzarella
cheese
1/4 cup (60 grams) grated parmesan cheese
2 cups (480ml) olive oil
2 cups (460 grams) ricotta cheese
5 cups (650ml) tomato sauce (pureed tinned
tomatoes with herbs)
The hotel’s head chef
Martin Wagner may not
be Swiss, but he hails from
the Alps, having been born
and brought up in Austria. Since then,
he’s travelled extensively for work, from
the warm seas of French Polynesia to the
wind-swept West coast of Ireland, but he’s
now happily settled in Adelboden where
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C.
Peel and slice the aubergine, so the slices are a
quarter of an inch thick. Beat three eggs and
the half cup of milk in a deep bowl. Coat the
aubergine in the flour, and then dip it in the
egg-milk mixture, followed by coating it in
bread crumbs. Place the coated aubergine in
the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix the ricotta cheese, with half
the shredded mozzarella, all the parmesan
cheese and the remaining two, lightly beaten,
eggs.
Refrigerate the cheese mix.
he brings a real passion to what the hotel
calls its “new Alpine cuisine”, a fresh
interpretation of mountain classics, making
use of the finest seasonal ingredients sourced
from within a few miles of Adelboden.
Such an example is this aubergine
lasagne, served warm, which can be eaten
alone as a starter or with a green salad as a
lunchtime meal. n
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Cook the
aubergine slices until golden brown, about
three minutes each side and drain on kitchen
paper towel.
Place two cups of tomato sauce to a two-litre
casserole dish, then add a layer of aubergine,
followed by a layer of the cheese mixture, then
aubergine again and the remaining three cups
of tomato sauce. Top with the remainder of
the shredded mozzarella that has been left to
one side.
Place the casserole dish in the centre of the
oven and bake for about 40 minutes.
Allow the lasagne to cool for 15 minutes
before serving.
50 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
51

t r a n s p o r t c o n v e r t i b l e s
Fully
converted
Britons are the most enthusiastic drop-top drivers in
the world. Matt Guarente gets out his sunglasses and
checks out some of the best on the market…
1Fiat 500
Open
There are a lot of small,
cute, practical cars for
sun-worshippers out
there but with a 500
all you need is a pair of
sunglasses and a bit of
attitude and you can
pretend you’re the star
of a Fellini classic. The
soft top of the open here
just pulls back, rather like
the deckchair-fabric roofs
of the old 2CVs, but we
assure you this version
is better engineered. In
fact it’s a tech-heavy car,
Stop&Start is standard
and helps keep emissions
low, there’s Bluetooth
connectivity, and MP3
inputs on the stereo.
Che bellissima!
From £11,700
1
IT’S a common summer motoring sight. As
the rain begins to get serious, you can spot
them under flyover bridges, pulled up and
with their roofs slowly closing up, like a huge
and slow-moving bivalve rearranging its shell.
It’s odd that, for a country with such
unpredictable weather, we should love our
convertible cars so much. We buy three times
as many convertibles as do French or Italian
motorists, and only Germans – who suffer
equally from the cold and wet – buy more
among European markets.
But it’s precisely because the sun is scarce
that we do. Mad dogs and Englishmen go out
in the midday sun because we cram in as much
time in the good weather as possible. It’s the
same with conservatories and sun-decks and
verandahs: When the sun does come out, we
want to be able to enjoy it.
The good news for motorists is that old
drawbacks of a soft-top – leaks, wind noise,
vandalism and opportunity to theft – have been
put to one side by the new generation of hardtop
convertible cabriolets and coupes kicked
off by the Peugeot 206 CC. For the first time,
steel folding roofs were installed on (relatively)
inexpensive base models – even if they were
based on technology from the 1930s.
The folding mechanism and the stowed roof
itself is normally housed in the boot, which
might compromise the available space, and you
need to take a look at this before buying.
There are a lot of quite dull but worthy
convertibles out there – such as VW’s Eos
– which win awards but probably very few
hearts. One of the most interesting cars,
Citroen’s C3 Pluriel, is now superseded by
a very dull replacement and Renault’s sexy
Megane Coupe looks similarly pedestrian in the
drop-top version.
The five models we list here look as good
with their tops up as down – not something
you can say about many convertibles – and
we tried to look at some fun alternatives.
Finally, if you are buying second hand, online
dealer Carsite.co.uk has researched the relative
prices of convertibles; the worst time to buy is
September, when prices can be as much as 20%
higher than they are in early spring.
Æ
52 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
53

t r a n s p o r t c o n v e r t i b l e s
t h e a r t s l i t e r at u r e
2
3
The mistress of crime thrillers
Alasdair Steven investigates the work of Agatha Christie
4
2Mazda
MX-5 Open
Our first choice is not an
alternative, it’s the mainstream.
Personally I don’t like it. But
who am I to argue with a
model that’s the highest
selling roadster ever, and still
tops the JD Power customer
satisfaction rankings? It’s a great
compromise between sporty
and practical. The cheaper
models are fun rather than
rip-roaring – this close to the
ground you’ll feel you’re going
faster than you are, anyway.
There’s a hard or soft-top
option, and the former is the
fastest automatic mechanism
around. Useful to know when
a flash thunderstorm is looming.
From £16,850
3BMW 1 Series
Convertible
This looks far better as a droptop
than it does as a saloon,
and overall is a neater package
than the coveted 3 series. The
entry price is a tad high, given
that you could own an Audi
TT for just £2,000 more, but
to put it in context the base
model 118i is 50% cheaper
than its big-brother 320i. The
1.8 litre diesel model is frugal,
in tax band D and will push on
to 129mph. Where conditions
allow, of course. And you may
need a hat at that speed.
From £23,000
5
4Daihatsu
Copen
Eccentric, fun, and a folding
steel roof all for the price of a
mid-range Fiesta. The Copen
is small – not unlike Suzuki’s
Cappuccino, which once
prompted Jeremy Clarkson to
wonder whether he should get
in, or strap one to each foot.
But it’s fully loaded – power
mirrors and windows, air con,
power steering, ABS brakes,
twin airbags, and CD player all
come as standard, and the lid
folds down or up in 30 seconds.
From £11,800.
5Jeep Wrangler
2.8 CRD Unlimited
We appreciate that not
everyone wants a cutesy city
car or sports tourer with their
open-air driving experience. The
Wrangler is the biggest (five
seat, four door) convertible car
in mass production, and will
take you, four other adults and
a lot of kit, over some tough
terrain while still allowing you
to get a sunburned nose. Fuel
use is not bad from the 2.8
common-rail diesel – 28mpg
average – and being of
Stateside design there’s lots of
power assistance and a wealth
of cup holders.
From £26,900. n
The Queen of Crime
knew a thing or two about
poison. Agatha Christie
studied pharmacy in her native
Torquay during the First World
War and worked in the local
pharmacy which was close to
Torre Abbey. While there Christie
learnt much that she was later
to use in her novels. Not for
her the butler with the poker –
Christie preferred a sinister and
little known poison in a remote
country house.
She gained her certificate to
practice as a pharmacist in 1917
and worked with the Voluntary
Aid Detachment treating
wounded soldiers who had been
shipped back to Torquay. She
also worked as a ‘ward-maid’ in
Torre hospital and did relief work
in Torquay Town Hall when it
was a Red Cross Centre.
In the Second World War
she worked in the pharmacy
as an assistant and qualified
so she could dispense drugs.
Against each chemical in her
meticulous exercise books there
is a list of its properties and the
recommended dosage.
There is now a museum in the
grounds of Torre Abbey with
a gallery dedicated to Christie
memorabilia: Significantly there
is a special area devoted to
the poisons used in her books.
About 80% of the Christie books
Agatha Christie Queen of Crime
are centred around killings by
poison or some rum mixture
which Christie had learnt about
as a pharmacist.
Mysterious
One of her favourite poisons
was strychnine which had been
in common domestic use for
many centuries as rat poison.
After taking strychnine there
are violent convulsions and
swallowing is impossible. In The
Mysterious Mr Quin many were
murdered by strychnine while
that glorious fictional eccentric
Hercule Poirot has to make his
“little grey cells” work overtime
in another strychnine related
murder in Death is Three Acts.
One of Christie’s most
ingenious poison killings was
Death in the Air where there
is a death on an aeroplane. A
tell-tale red mark is spotted on
the lady’s neck and a dart at
her feet. The dart was a jungle
blowpipe and had been dipped in
tree-snake venom: That causes
“acute haemorrhaging under the
skin and also acts on the heart,
paralysing it immediately.”
But one of Christie’s most
thrilling books was Witness
For The Prosecution which was
made into a famous film with
Charles Laughton, Marlene
Dietrich and Tyrone Power.
In a plot that twists and turns,
Laughton accepts Dietrich’s case
strongly against medical advice.
His heart condition necessitates
him having a constant nurse on
hand (played by Elsa Lancaster,
Laughton’s real life wife) who
sternly reminds him when to
take his pills.
Jean Reid, a Christie expert
at the Torquay museum,
confirms that “much of Dame
Agatha’s plots develop from
her pharmacy training. But it
is the jigsaw-like plots that
grip the reader. We have some
fascinating Christie material
at the museum and at nearby
Greenways, her home and now a
National Trust property. My own
favourites are Nemesis and the
Murder of Roger Ackroyd.”
The cunning twist in the last
named book shows Christie at
her most chemically inventive. It
is another strychnine poisoning
and Hercule Poirot has the
coffee cup reanalysed and tested
for narcotics. “A narcotic taken
with the strychnine,” Hercule
announces with his accustomed
insouciant urbanity, “will delay
the action of the poison for some
hours.”
From the week beginning
September 15 Torquay is to
celebrate the 110th anniversary
of Christie’s birth. The museum
and Greenways will hold
special events along with a
‘potent garden’ which will
highlight the author’s interest in
poisonous plants.
So the creator of such wonderful
characters as Hercule Poirot and
Miss Marple will be celebrated
in the town where she studied
pharmacy and dreamt up all those
dastardly and poisonous plots.
The books have given
generations of readers, filmgoers
and TV viewers hours of
entertainment and they all came
from a young girl studying in her
local pharmacy. n
l Alasdair Steven is a freelance
writer on the arts. He has covered
opera and ballet in the UK as well
as writing television scripts.
54 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
July/August 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
55

o f f e r s e x c l u s i v e ly f o r m e m b e r s
Pharmacy Professional brings you another exclusive reader offer
An idyllic Cornish hideaway
The
offer
Three nights for the price of two at The Lugger hotel in Portloe, Cornwall
Nestling around the tiny Portloe
waterfront, The Lugger Hotel is one
of south Cornwall’s most idyllic small
hideaways.
Once a 17th century smugglers’ inn, The
Lugger promises authentic Cornish charm and
character. Combine that with chic boutique
interiors with 22 heavenly bedrooms in a
New England
style with their
shutters, bleached
Portuguese woods
and crisps white
linens.
With the
harbour’s fishing
boats moored
on its doorstep,
visitors and locals
flock to the Lugger
Restaurant for a
menu bursting with
flavours from the
sea and the freshest
catch on the coast.
Head Chef,
Didier Bienaime, plucks the best crab, lobster
and fish from the fishing boats that sail from
outside his door each day and combines them
with the finest local and seasonal ingredients
to create classic Cornish feasts. With an AA
Rosette for Excellence, the Lugger Restaurant
and its sun-drenched terraces above the water
are the ultimate spot for lazy lobster lunches
and evening aperitifs.
The Best Remedy: An exclusive reader offer
for Pharmacy Professional readers includes:
Three nights bed & breakfast accommodation,
with dinner on the first night and a bottle of
champagne in the room when you arrive, all
from £360.00 per couple, valid from now
through to the end of December, subject to
availability and excluding bank holidays.
To book contact The Lugger, quoting ‘remedy’,
on Tel: 01872 501322; www.luggherhotel.com
Waiting for surgery:
10 years.
Pharmacy Professional’s Prize Crossword 8
Compiled by www.puzzle-house.co.uk
After solving the crossword, take each letter from the shaded squares (in order) to spell out the Prize Word.
Email your Prize Word answer and your contact details to ppcompetitions@rpsgb.org by July 19 2010
W
56 Pharmacy Professional | July/August 2010
Clues Across
5 The best topical treatment? (5)
6 Spray sodium before failing to complete
the sale (5)
9 A sign of tiredness on the way back to a
new beginning (4)
10 Something for chemists to experiment
with, baby! (4,4)
11 What allergens may prompt us to do as
regards performance (5)
13 A lousy type we assess with an ester,
perhaps (7)
15 Like a reaction to a flower absorbing
nitrogen (7)
16 They grow on you! (5)
18 They should stick to first aid (8)
19 Angler’s hope for insect injury (4)
20 Show contempt for cocaine use (5)
21 A surprise attack involving phosphorus?
What a relief! (5)
Clues Down
1 Tablets from the golf club (4)
2 They’re for rehydrating the lieutenant in an
The prizes this month are two more titles published
by Pharmaceutical Press:
Non-prescription Medicines
The only publication in the UK
that deals with available OTC
medicines comprehensively
and in depth. This vital resource
enables pharmacists to make
well-informed recommendations and to give sound
advice to their patients.
Medicines Use Reviews
A Practical Guide
First edition by Susan Youssef
– Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy
Practice, De Montfort University,
Leicester, UK. This excellent
reference provides evidence-based
information, tips and guidance on how to conduct
successful Medicines Use Reviews (MURs).
elite regiment (5)
3 I ate crab prepared by those causing disease (8)
4 Rabat/Beirut designer drug? (11)
7 A treat for quitters to rave about on a
dangerous incline (11)
8 The chief nurse commented on diclofenac (5)
12 Bitter yet sensitive to a herpes simplex
outbreak (4,4)
14 Vitamin D extract partly relevant to body
mass? (5)
17 Flu goes continental (5)
19 Apply heat to a lump (4)
CONGRATULATIONS to Stuart Hesslewood of Halesowen, West Midlands who wins copies of Community Pharmacy Handbook and Handbook Extemporaneous Prepartion
June Answers Across: 6. Sore; 7. Collagen; 8. Statin; 9. Angina; 10. Seltzer; 12. Avian; 14. Spray; 16. Verruca; 18. Eyelid; 20. Opioid; 22. Niquitin; 23. Coil.
Answers Down: 1. Bottle; 2. Heat; 3. Alka; 4. Hangover; 5. Hernia; 7. Canker; 11. Thallium; 13. Heroin; 15. Physio; 17. Clinic; 19. Date; 21. Itch. Prize Word: OVERDOSE
In 5 minutes
you can
save her.
The Smile Train provides life
changing free cleft surgery for
children in developing countries
which takes as little as 45 minutes
and costs as little as £150.
It gives desperate children not
just a new smile – but a new life.
I want to give a child a second chance at life.
Mr/Mrs/Ms
Address
Email
Telephone
Charge my gift to my: ■ Visa ■ MasterCard ■ Maestro
Card No.
Valid From Exp. Date Issue No.
Signature
■ My cheque is enclosed, made payable to The Smile Train UK
Donate online: www.smiletrain.org.uk OR call: 0870 127 6269
Registered Charity No. 1114748
■ £150 towards surgery for one child
■ £75 could cover half the cost of one surgery
Postcode
Use Gift Aid to increase your donation by 25%
■ YES, I would like Smile Train to claim Gift Aid on any donations that I have
made within the last 4 years and all donations I make in the future until further
notice. I confirm that I pay sufficient UK income/capital gains tax to cover any
tax that Smile Train will reclaim from any donations that I make.
These details, including your email address / telephone number, may be used to keep you informed about
our future developments. If you do not want to receive such information please tick this box ■
© 2010 The Smile Train.
■ £30 towards medications for one surgery
■ £ We’ll gratefully accept any amount
Send this coupon with
your donation to:
The Smile Train UK,
PO Box 910,
Northampton NN3 0BG
Z10061U244FAU1A
A healthy diet is a crucial part of pregnancy for every woman and it can help to prevent birth defects. Make sure you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables and take a multivitamin with 400 micrograms of folic acid every day for a month before conception
and throughout early pregnancy. Folic acid has been shown to reduce the risk of neural tube defects of the brain and spinal cord (such as spina bifida) in unborn children by between 50 and 70% when taken before conception and during the first trimester,
and it could also help to reduce the risk of cleft lip and palate. It is also important to stop smoking when you are pregnant and to avoid foods such as raw or smoked seafood, raw shellfish and eggs, soft cheese, unpasteurized milk, and pâté. Speak to
your GP for further advice about having a healthy pregnancy, and if you would like any more information about why clefts occur, how clefts can be repaired with surgery, or about caring for a child born with a cleft, please visit www.smiletrain.org.uk today.

Become an
Imaginative Traveller!
How do you like to travel?
adventurer
Our tours offer freedom
and flexibility - at great value…
Syrian Caravan ex Damascus
Imposing castles, ancient cities
and wonderful desert scenery
9 days £545
Backroads of Rajasthan ex Delhi
A magical experience amongst the
colour and culture of Rajasthan
17 days £945
Overland Indochina ex Saigon
From Saigon to Bangkok via
Cambodia in just 10 days
10 days £630
traveller
Our tours offer rich and
rewarding adventures in comfort…
Patagonian Highlights ex Buenos Aires
Dramatic scenery and great walks
in Patagonia del Fuego
14 days £2770
Mythical China ex Beijing
Journey through China’s rich history
from Beijing to Shanghai
16 days £1475
Essence of Vietnam ex Saigon
Discover the highlights and traditions
of this colourful country
8 days £750
Galapagos Adventure ex Quito
Cruise one of the world’s most
pristine marine reserves
7 days £1385
Many more on our website
Ethiopian Explorer ex Addis Ababa
A trip to one of the most unique and
intriguing countries in Africa
14 days £1590
Many more on our website
Many more on our website
Whichever way you choose…
join us on a journey of a lifetime!
FINALIST
Tel: 0845 077 8807 Email: sales@imtrav.net
www.imaginative-traveller.com