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I wouldn’t go as far as to say Queen Victoria is spinning in her grave but if she was alive today, she probably wouldn’t be amused. 

One hundred and eighty-three years after she granted what was then the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain Royal Charter status, and only a day after it transitioned to a royal college, the professional leadership body for pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists has lost sight of its raison d'être.

Before it disappears into the ether forever, let’s remind ourselves how the Charter interpreted the primary role of the body formerly known as the RPS; ‘Safeguard, maintain the honour and promote the interests of pharmacists in their exercise of the profession of pharmacy’.

Not anymore, it seems. The new Royal College of Pharmacy (RCP) launched yesterday and immediately exclaimed it has the public, not pharmacists, as its principle focus. Don’t take my word for it. It’s there, clear as day, on its website. “Our mission is to put pharmacy at the forefront of patient care, advancing the safe and effective use of medicines to the benefit of patients and the public”.

That’s quite a shift. On the face of it, there’s nothing outrageous about that. It just didn’t need to be said because it’s obvious. Of course, a good professional leadership body ultimately benefits patients.

But the public should not be a professional leadership body’s focal point. Its members should be. In the RCP’s case, it’s pharmacists. For a body that stumbled from one blunder to another over the last 15 years or so, losing members and facing an existential battle, it’s little wonder the RPS has been eager the turn the page. But this was a poor start. 

Typical RPS, you might say. Its ‘new’ mission as a royal college is not only deflating, given it has an uphill battle to win pharmacists’ hearts and minds, it’s quite embarrassing. 

Not as embarrassing as the government intervening in 2023 to clean up the mess the RPS was in by creating the UK Pharmacy Professional Leadership Advisory Board (UKPPLAB). But pretty embarrassing when you consider the latest intervention, this time by the Pharmacists’ Defence Association’s (PDA).

Buoyed by triumphs at Boots and Superdrug, the PDA wasted little time declaring it had stepped into the space vacated by the RCP by changing its “principal statutory objective”, namely “to safeguard, maintain the honour and promote the interests of pharmacists in the exercise of their profession”.

The RCP didn’t want to comment when we asked if it wanted to respond to the PDA’s manoeuvre. That was lame. Careful not to be seen to criticise the RCP, the PDA was in no mood to take the foot off the accelerator.

“The RPS transitioning into a Royal College of Pharmacy means that it must now act as a public interest charity and will be regulated by the Charity Commission,” it said, insisting the PDA's “leadership is about standing behind pharmacists”.

I'm sure there isn't a single pharmacist in the UK who doesn't want the RCP to succeed. I certainly hope it does. But it will be subjected to intense scrutiny in the coming years. The UKPPLAB doesn’t appear to be going anywhere and the Charity Commission will provide the RCP with another layer of inspection.

It’s much needed.

Neil Trainis is the editor of Independent Community Pharmacist. 

Got a view on this? Drop him a message - neil.trainis@1530.com