The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has rejected a petition calling for pharmacy technicians to be granted associate membership, C+D has learned.

The online petition, which was published last Friday (July 3) by a pharmacy technician posting anonymously under their Twitter handle @PharmTechUK, stressed that offering membership to pharmacy technicians was “the best way to develop a skilled multidisciplinary workforce”.

The RPS told C+D yesterday (June 6) it was "not considering any changes to our membership categories". The society had a “fantastic relationship” with the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK (APTUK) and would continue to work closely with the organisation “for the good of the profession and patient care”, it added.

In the petition, the anonymous technician called for their profession to be granted access to the RPS’s faculty, its professional recognition scheme. Denying technicians access “limits not only the development of pharmacy technicians but also constrains the development of the pharmacy sector overall”, the technician stressed.

The technician claimed that "complex reasons" meant that less than 10 per cent of their profession had APTUK membership. The RPS faculty therefore represented "the best opportunity for self-development for aspirant technicians", the technician said.

APTUK was unavailable for comment at time of going to press.

Mixed view from pharmacists

The petition, which had received 38 signatures at time of going to press, sparked debate among the profession.

Pharmacist Mohammed Hussain said he lent his “full support” to the petition. “I believe this is the right thing to do and now is the right time,” he posted on the petition's webpage.

But academic pharmacist and RPS board member Anthony Cox said he was “concerned” that granting pharmacy technicians associate membership would “undermine” the work of APTUK. “[The RPS] are a pharmacist body, not a pharmacy body,” he posted on Twitter.

Mike Hewitson, owner of Abbey Pharmacy in Dorset, told C+D that he had no problem with pharmacy technicians setting up their own professional body but “the RPS’s raison d’être should be for pharmacists”.

Last week (July 2), the Royal College of Physicians launched its own faculty programme for doctors' and surgeons' assistants, known as physician associates.

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