By Neil Trainis

The secretary of the review steering group overseeing reforms to the PSNC and local pharmaceutical committees has played down suggestions the Group is struggling to attract large interest in its engagement events and insisted three online meetings last week saw “a great amount” of people attend.

James Wood told Independent Community Pharmacist that 135 people in total registered for Zoom events on January 26, 27 and 28 to hear how the RSG is progressing with proposals it hopes to finalise by easter. 

There are concerns many independents are not engaging with the reforms because they are too busy to spend time running their businesses to attend events or do not understand the process, or both. The RSG said it did not have figures for the number of independents who attended the three Zoom meetings.

“The events held last week were intended to be small focus group sessions, rather than a larger ‘updating-the-sector’ event like some of the webinars that we have held,” Wood said.

“We had 135 people registered over the three days, which was a great amount to effectively collate views and ensure that everyone who attended was able to take part and be engaged in conversation with RSG members.

“Alongside events like these, we are continuing to send our newsletters out to many thousands of people and to engage with the sector, including through discussions with the NPA such as at their most recent board meeting, to ensure that we hear the views of independents and all contractors.”

He said contractors who did not attend last week’s Zoom events but want to express a view can email the RSG on review@pharmacyreview.org