The Royal Pharmaceutical Society is the professional body for all pharmacists and all sectors of the profession. By renewing your membership you have an opportunity to network with other pharmacists and shape the future of the profession. We realise the importance of the role of pharmacists working in primary care – commissioning, planning and managing service delivery for the benefit of patients and the public.

Here are just some of the ways we’ve been working to support you over the past year:

• Health and Social Care Bill
The Bill proposes huge changes to the NHS in England and we have been lobbying and providing responses to consultations to ensure the specific skills of pharmacists working in primary care are not lost in any restructuring of the NHS in England.

• Leadership Competency Framework
The LCF was launched to support the development of leaders at all career stages and all levels of practice. It is designed to be read and used in conjunction with any learning and development activity and performance assessment tools you currently use.

• Medicines, Ethics and Practice
Our new look MEP was completely revamped in 2011, with a much greater focus on professionalism and putting professional judgment at the heart of the decision-making process.

• Transfer of care
We’re leading the work to ensure the safe transfer of information when patients move between care settings – a vital step in breaking down the barriers between primary and secondary care. This included specific guidance for members explaining what it meant for them.

• Management of VTE
We’ve been working with four royal colleges on the management of VTE

• Mentor service
We launched our mentor-mentee matching service, allowing members to search for a mentor who meets their specific needs.

• Virtual networks and forums
We’ve invigorated our forums over the past year with more networks including our prescribing and medicines management group.

• Practice guidance
We have produced over 25 pieces of guidance this year, all available through our website.

• Understanding your views
We surveyed members on the commissioning and provision of medicines management in primary care.

Looking ahead to 2012 we will continue to support you in your role. Here are some of the key priorities we are working on:

• Medicines safety
The number one priority for our members, in 2012 we’re working with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges on standards for medicines management in care homes. We know many of you work in community services, so our professional standards for care homes will be of use. Many experts from primary care have contributed time and expertise. We are also working on Professional standards for hospital pharmacy which cover mental health trusts as well as and public health, where primary care pharmacists play a vital role.

• Modernising Pharmacy Careers
We’re continuing to work with MPC to ensure there is a clear career pathway for pharmacists, with support for foundation and early years as well as recognition of advancement through to consultant level.

• MEP edition 36
We’ll launch edition 36 of MEP in July, building on the success of edition 35.

• Daily news alerts
We’re launching a new service so you can find out about the health stories making the headlines without having to read all the papers, helping you to be prepared for any questions from patients.

• Transfer of care
We’ll start to see the outputs from our early adopter sites, including evidence of how front line pharmacists ensure patients have the right medicines as they return home after a hospital stay. You have a vital role to play around managing vulnerable patients as they are admitted and discharged to and from care homes and mental health trusts.

• Support for those working in primary care
We are developing an action plan to identify and develop specific areas where we can support those working in primary care.

• Lobbying
We will continue to lobby on behalf of pharmacists working in primary care as the NHS in England restructures.

As well as all this you’ll continue to receive your regular copy of the Pharmaceutical Journal, as well as getting access to all our online resources, such as CPD support and support for clinical audit. If you subscribe to it, you’ll also receive your regular copy of Clinical Pharmacist.

Your membership.

Your professional body.

We can only do this with your continued support.