RPS President elected as Commonwealth Pharmacists Association councillor for Great Britain

Sandra Gidley told The Pharmaceutical Journal that her aim was for “the organisations to work more closely together”.

Sandra Gidley

Sandra Gidley, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), has been elected as the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) councillor for Great Britain. Gidley is one of 31 councillors elected to represent countries around the Commonwealth.

As part of her role, Gidley told The Pharmaceutical Journal that she will act as a link between the two bodies, representing the RPS to the CPA and communicating CPA activities to the Society. The aim, she said, was for “the organisations to work more closely together”.

“Links with pharmacists in other countries are important: we can develop better understanding and cooperation. And we have learned from COVID-19 that building these links remotely can be an effective way of working,” she said.

“It will be interesting to explore priorities post-COVID. Antimicrobial stewardship is a big priority, and in the UK we have done a lot of work on that.

“We can share a bit more with others, and learn from what others are doing”.

The CPA was established by the RPS in 1970, and has since become an independent charity. Claire Anderson, chair of the RPS English Pharmacy Board, is a trustee of the charity.

In a recent blog for The Pharmaceutical Journal, Victoria Rutter, executive director of the CPA and Diane Ashiru-Oredope, CPA global antimicrobial resistance lead, said the charity’s mission is to “empower pharmacists to improve health and wellbeing throughout the Commonwealth, with a main focus on supporting and optimising medicines use — particularly in lower- and middle-income countries”.

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Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, RPS President elected as Commonwealth Pharmacists Association councillor for Great Britain;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2020.20208071

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