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A community pharmacist's view

Ash Soni is a community pharmacist who owns a pharmacy in Streatham, south London. He is also a National Pharmacy Association board member and the Professional Executive Committee Chair for NHS Lambeth.

Clarity and confidence 

Ash believes that the GPhC will create greater clarity about the role of the regulator and of the professional body, and will increase public confidence. He says that the GPhC 'can only strengthen public confidence more by demonstrating that what we are doing is in the best interests of patients'.

Focus on learning

The GPhC should provide guidance for pharmacists: 'I hope that the GPhC will regulate in a way that recognises that professionals do not deliberately set out to harm patients,' says Ash. 'We need to understand why mistakes happen and deal with them, but the focus should be on using that learning to help the profession, not on penalising individuals.'

Regulations can be hard to interpret, and Ash hopes that the GPhC will help pharmacists to understand what standards mean and how to apply them.

Working in partnership

The GPhC has a duty to consult with its stakeholders. Ash welcomes an approach that will take account of the opinions and wishes of pharmacists. He also hopes that the GPhC will work collaboratively with the professional body.

Promoting public health 

Ash cites research showing that pharmacy is one of the most trusted professions. In his experience, 'people are probably more open with us than with any other healthcare professionals'. Pharmacists are also the only part of the healthcare community to come into regular contact with healthy people and, as such, have an important role to play in health promotion. Ash feels that community pharmacists' skills are underused: 'If we are going to advance as a profession, we need to have a more clinical role.'

Recording continuing professional development

The introduction of mandatory continuing professional development (CPD) will not make much difference to Ash, who believes that most pharmacists are already doing CPD 'all the time'. However, he hopes that the GPhC will work with other professional bodies to create systems that will make it easier for pharmacists to record CPD.

The public perspective 

Ash is not concerned about the inclusion of lay people on the GPhC Council. In fact, 'one of my colleagues pointed out that pharmacists tend to be harder on other pharmacists and the public will probably go easier on us!' On a more serious note, he believes that 'lay people will bring a useful new perspective. It's too insular to just listen to pharmacists' points of view.'