A BRIEF HISTORY OF BOOTS PHARMACISTS' ASSOCIATION

Boots Pharmacists’ Association was formed in 1973 with the following broad objectives:-

• to provide an independent means of communication within Boots The Chemists by adopting a consultative representative role at meetings that are held regularly between Executive Committee members of the Association and senior management representatives of Boots The Chemists, and with outside pharmacy organisations of a similar nature.

• to promote the professional interests of its members. The professional interests of the members are fostered through regular contact between the Association’s Professional Standing Committee and the profession’s key decision makers, particularly those at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain’s (RPSGB) headquarters at Lambeth.

Boots Pharmacists’ Association is a certificated trade union and membership is open to all registered pharmacists employed by Boots The Chemists and those pharmacists and former pharmacists in receipt of a Boots pension. Pharmacy graduates receiving their pre-registration experience with Boots The Chemists are offered free associate membership. Existing independently from Boots The Chemists, the Association is managed by an Executive of seven elected members and employs a Chief Executive Officer who is responsible for the Association’s administration and management. He also has an ambassadorial role on behalf of the Association and is the key contact with the Association’s members, Boots The Chemists and outside bodies such as the RPSGB, other pharmacy bodies and the Certification Officers. Uniquely the Association represents the largest group of employee pharmacists in the UK. News, information and advice are communicated to members by the in-house publication, “The Counsellor”, and by various newsletters.

Boots The Chemists is a major influence in the development and practice of pharmacy in the community and members of the Association are crucially involved in that process providing, as they do, a primary health care service that is of the highest professional and ethical standards. It has been said that Boots Pharmacists’ Association has made significant and constructive contributions to pharmacy debates. The Association first submitted evidence to the Nuffield Pharmacy Enquiry in the 1970s. Since that time the Association has responded to consultation documents from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society on a plethora of subjects, the most recent being various revisions of the Code of Ethics, patient and public involvement, registration and fitness to practice and national pharmacy boards for England, Scotland and Wales. It has also contributed to the Society’s debate concerning the Department of Health’s review of the regulation of the non-medical health care professions (the “Foster Review”). Recent direct submissions to the Department of Health include consultations on the Control of Entry regulations and the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2006 (the Section 60 Order). The Association has expressed its views on a large number of applications received by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (the MHRA) to re-classify various medical products from prescription only to pharmacy medicine (POM to P) and from pharmacy medicine to general sales list (P to GSL). A response to the 2006 Parliamentary All-Party Pharmacy Group’s inquiry into the future of pharmacy has also been submitted.

Whilst it is a certificated trade union, the Association has a policy of consultation and cooperation rather than confrontation. The Association has a partnership, information and consultative agreement with Boots The Chemists. Boots The Chemists recognises Boots Pharmacists’ Association as an alternative and additional line of communication for its members, both individually and collectively, and values its contribution in representing the employee view in the progression and future of pharmacy within Boots The Chemists and the profession as a whole. The Association meets regularly with senior managers of Boots The Chemists on at least four occasions each year to discuss professional matters, remuneration and terms and conditions of employment. Each year, through the Remuneration Standing Committee, the Association circulates all its members to ascertain their aspirations for the following year’s salary and benefits package. The Association then produces a report for discussion at Joint Consultative Meetings held between the Association and Boots The Chemists senior management.

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                                Copyright © 2007 Boots Pharmacists' Association
                                Last modified: 02/19/07