Community pharmacist among five new GPhC council members
The regulator has appointed five new members to its governing council, including a community pharmacist, it has announced.
Five new members will be added to the pharmacy regulator’s governing council in April 2024 and April 2025, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) announced last week (February 14).
It said that Ade Williams, superintendent pharmacist and director of M J Williams Pharmacy and lead pharmacist at Bedminster Pharmacy in Bristol, will join the council on April 1.
Pro vice-chancellor of the faculty of health and life sciences at Northumbria University Professor Dianne Ford and chartered accountant Gareth Powell will also join Mr Williams this April, the regulator added.
The GPhC also announced that University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust boss Tim Jaggard and North-East London Integrated Care System (ICS) chief pharmacist Dr Raliat Onatade will join its council on April 1 next year.
It explained that current council members Jo Kember, Mark Hammond and Arun Midha will leave the council this year, while Elizabeth Mailey and Jayne Salt will be replaced in 2025.
GPhC chair “delighted”
GPhC chair Gisela Abbam said that the new positions attracted “a very large volume of applications from high calibre people”.
She added that she was “delighted” that the five new members were joining, saying that it is “vital” that the council members could offer “different life experiences, ideas and perspectives to inform [the regulator’s] discussions and decisions”.
Ms Abbam stressed that Mr Powell, who was chief operating officer (COO) of BBC Cymru Wales from 2008 until 2023, “lives and works in Wales”.
This maintains “the important requirements for [the] council to include members from across the three countries [it regulates]”, she explained.
Ms Abbam said the new members will “help patients and wider society to benefit from safe, effective and inclusive pharmacy care”.
She thanked the “outgoing council members for their hard work and dedication throughout their terms of office”.
Yearly pay
In August, the GPhC announced that it was recruiting the five new members for an initial three-year term.
At the time, it said that members would be able to hold their position for a maximum of eight years.
The appointment brief noted that council members receive £15,000 per year, subject to deductions, and can receive additional income of £2,500 per year for any “significant extra responsibility”, such as chairing a committee.
It added that the time commitment for the role is “up to 30 days a year”.
In their May 2022 council meeting, members of the GPhC voted to give themselves a 20% pay rise – equivalent to a yearly £2,500 uplift.
It marked the first rise in council member remuneration since April 2018, following a report that showed “GPhC remuneration was lower than the median figure for the wider pool of regulators”.
