The Regional Committee is made up of representatives from different areas of pharmacy practice across the UK (community, hospital, locums, and primary care/specialist) to ensure all sectors are represented. The committees are an important part of how PDA members can interact with the union.
Each representative has current and frontline experience of the issues that affect PDA members and is tasked with listening to the experiences and views of PDA members in their region. We want to hear from members about what is happening within their sector of pharmacy so that the committee can reflect that to meet member needs. We are involved in quarterly regional committee meetings during the year with a designated PDA Regional Officer present. We also communicate with the PDA centre and other Regional Committees in between meetings.
We are passionate about pharmacy and are privileged to work in such a highly regarded profession. We give up some of our free time on a voluntary basis to ensure fair representation for our members. We also work to ensure that advancements in pharmacy meet and exceed the needs of our entire profession, whilst also helping to support grassroots pharmacists working tirelessly on the ground daily.
If we want to ensure that our members’ issues are being fairly addressed, we need to hear the current real-world experiences of our frontline pharmacists. We cannot shy away from those that are dealing with real issues and with real patients in their respective workplaces, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic under extremely difficult circumstances across many pharmacy sectors.
At the latest South East Regional Committee Meeting last month (December 2020), we discussed a wide range of topics from all sectors of pharmacy, including:
- Differences in PDA indemnity policies between primary care and GP “wrap-around” cover for new PCN Pharmacists.
- The need for NHSE to encourage GP practices to pay run-off cover to GP Pharmacists that have worked prior to the formation of PCNs and to provide a breakdown of indemnity costs.
- Health and safety issues relating to the COVID-19 vaccination programme and working from home remotely.
- Support provided by the PDA to resitters, provisional and pre-reg pharmacists taking the delayed pre-reg exams this year.
- Apparent trends in the cancellation of locum shifts at short notice by employers.
- Transparency of locum pay rates in the hospital sector.
- Lack of rights and victimisation of locum pharmacists working in the hospital sector.
- “No mileage policies” from large multiples impacting on locum rates.
- An update on the IR35 income tax changes.
Member issues can be progressed in a number of ways and examples of the agendas being addressed by regional committee members include composing an article on the PDA website, organising local campaigns, delivering a presentation on an on-demand webinar, contributing to the COVID-19 risk-assessment tool, distributing a ‘Zero Tolerance of Abuse’ poster and further guidance being published about the mass COVID-19 vaccine programme for pharmacists. Where appropriate for national action, issues can be taken forward to the PDA Union National Executive Committee.
We feel immensely proud of the role we have played in representing PDA members’ issues and concerns within their workplace and beyond. We are often their first port of call at a local level, but they are part of the PDA which is the largest pharmacists’ membership organisation in the UK. We feel that the issues that we raise on behalf of our members are being listened to fairly and that we lead by example to make a positive difference in the pharmacy profession that we are privileged to work in.
Regional Committee members are elected for a five-year period, with the latest elections happening now. Further information about this year’s Regional Committee elections can be found here.
Nav Bhogal
Muhammad Siddiqur Rahman
Not yet a PDA member?
If you have not yet joined the PDA, we encourage you to join today and encourage your colleagues to do the same.
Membership is FREE to pharmacy students, pre-regs and the first three months of being provisionally registered/newly qualified.
Read about our key member benefits here.