Through this change, the RPS aims to appear more like, or more recognisable by, the Royal Medical Colleges and policymakers.
For instance, British hospital consultants must be appointed by an appointment advisory committee, and by law one of its core members must be a college assessor nominated by the relevant royal college.
Sociologically, changing the name (such as the RPS wants to do by moving from Society to College) is a standard strategy to signify a break with the past. Hopefully, the new name will be connected with improved status and prestige.
The Pharmaceutical Society, since 1841, has endeavoured to socially engineer status improvements for British pharmacists. The Society benefited from British monarchs from Queen Victoria to King Charles III being patrons. However, "Royal", with its associated cachet, was only included in the name from 2010.
Read more: RPS announces bid to become ‘Royal College of Pharmacy’
Around 1842, the name College of Pharmacy was considered but rejected as being, then, too presumptuous for the fledgling professional body.
A founder, Jacob Bell, declared around 1853 that "pharmaceutical chemists ought to possess an establishment (headquarters) not inferior in scale and importance to the (Royal) colleges of physicians and surgeons".
Today, in London, the Royal College of Physicians probably holds the highest financial prestige owing to its prime location near Regent’s Park and its long history.
Read more: King Charles announced as RPS patron
The Royal College of Surgeons also holds significant prestige because of its central location in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The RPS started in prestigious Bloomsbury, then relocated to Lambeth, and most recently to Smithfield. While prestigious, it is a less central location.
In 1985 the Pharmaceutical Society created an “elite” College of Pharmacy Practice, including special examinations and experience, which it reincorporated in 2005.
The Society had professional body and regulatory functions until 2010, when the General Pharmaceutical Council took over regulation. The profession was assured that the new (reduced) RPS should be regarded as a body akin to a Royal College, and it had the ambition to formalise as a Royal College.
What now?
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society achieving its rename of the Royal College of Pharmacy is by no means certain. One concern might be the level of future fees. At an annual general meeting in 2022, only a small majority approved seeking college status, and it was decided not to pursue it.
The proposed body would use the word “pharmacy” and not “pharmacists”. Will it include pharmaceutical scientists? They are presently associate members (ARPharmS) and unable to vote, but extremely important in areas such as the industrial manufacture of medicines. Their academic background may be, for example, biology, chemistry or pharmacology.
Will the college include pharmacy technicians? They are already registered by the General Medical Council and may become tomorrow’s High Street community pharmacists. They may physically dispense prescriptions, performing a crucial role. Meanwhile, the more clinically-oriented pharmacists with masters degrees would become akin to medical practitioners (GPs) as in the 19th century. The social turnstile rotates and status changes churn.
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The outcome of such endeavours is not guaranteed. Moreover, unintended consequences may result. Today's pharmacy technicians, for example, may assertively attempt to possess the actual medicines, at the expense of today's pharmacists, with the associated potential profits. Technicians may, then, find pharmacists less encouraging, indeed antagonistic, maintaining their entrenched position by legal and informal means.
They may even fall out, chide, fight and nip bones. If victorious, pharmacy technicians may begin to rewrite pharmacy history so that pharmacists become bit players. Similar jostling scenarios could be imagined between today's pharmacists and medical practitioners. It is difficult to sufficiently stress the importance, for the professionals and their patients, of continued (collegiate!) cooperation between health professions.
Last but not least, there are the ugly socio-economic situation that could slay today’s pharmacists’ aspirations. In the long term, college status would improve pharmacists’ prestige and income. But it may arrive too late to heal today’s community pharmacy's financial woes.