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I’ll cut to the chase. What happens if the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) fails to secure the two-thirds majority it needs to press ahead with its plan to become a royal college when it puts the vote to its members next year?

Given its travails in recent years, it’s hard to see where it would go from there. There appears to be a quiet confidence among RPS loyalists that the vote will go their way but they should not ignore the possible consequences if it doesn’t.

Would that be the end of the RPS as we know it? It’s not a melodramatic question because the organisation has been fighting an existential battle and has been losing members.

Losing this vote could be the final nail in the coffin for the RPS, at least as far as professional leadership is concerned. I say ‘could be’ and not ‘will be’ because it has, some might say doggedly, kept going despite lurching from one crisis to another.

As the RPS embarks on a series of UK roadshows to enlighten members and non-members about its plan, rumours are swirling around.

If we ever get to a point where the RPS is nothing more than a publishing house, a new entity could rise out of the ashes of professional leadership. I’ve heard the British Oncology Pharmacy Association and College of Mental Health Pharmacy might coalesce to form a new pharmacy professional leadership body. Who knows?

Before I’m accused of being pessimistic, it’s important to say there’s a long way to go before anything has been decided. And credit to the RPS for promising to engage with all pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists on its plan, even though some have been concerned about the lack of a draft royal college charter and charity constitution.

“If it is still working out the details, then why is it doing roadshows?” the pharmacist and barrister Greg Lawton posted on X, unhappy that the RPS “remains unforthcoming with important details of its royal college proposal.”

The RPS told this magazine it will publish a report in December that will “capture the questions and discussions at the roadshow events.”

Cynics will doubt whether many people care if the RPS achieves royal college status or not. I guess we’ll soon know the answer.