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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 29, No. 11. 1966.

British boost to pharmacy attack

British boost to pharmacy attack

Wellington—Britain's withdrawal of her recognition of the New Zealand pharmacy diploma course as a suitable qualification for practice will probably revive the controversy between the Government and the New Zealand Pharmaceutical Society.

So Far the Minister of Education 'the on. A. E. Kinsella) has refused to comment on the British move because a petition on pharmacy training is still before Parliament. But how long the Government can stay silent depends on the actions of two proponents of the obligatory university course for all pharmacists. Britain has recognised their case and they are unlikely to let Mr. Kinsella off the hook.

The two are the President of the Pharmaceutical Society (Mr. R. D. F. Crosby) and the Head of Otago University's Pharmacology and Pharmacy department (Dr. F. N. Fastier).

Challenge

Mr. Crosby, in March, challenged the Government to obtain the opinion of an over seas expert on university training, saying the profession was convinced that. if health services were to be preperly maintained., university-trained pharmacists would be essential. He quoted the findings of a delegation which went abroad in 1963 that university education was the only acceptable form of training for the profession.

Professional anxiety with the existing system is, to say the least, impressive. Earlier in the year. Dr Fastier recalled that the School of Pharmacy was set up at Petone by the Education Department when it had become clear that the existing standard of pharmacy education was inferior to the minimum required in most parts of the Commonwealth. One of its objectives was to provide a course adequate for basic needs. A degree course was instituted at Otago for more advanced training, he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Fastier added, the Pharmacy Board had ascertained that standards elsewhere were rising so steeply that the degree course at Otago had become little better than an average course and the diploma one at Petone had become grossly substandard.

The Government has not announced any changes yet in its plan to transfer the Petone school to a new campus at Heretaunga. Upper Hutt, and is. it would seem, rejecting the contention that nothing less than a full scale university course of three years is adequate for the modern pharmacist.

Full pressure

Meanwhile, Wellington political and university administration experts are expecting a full scale pressure campaign on the minster to find if Cabinet will change its view A labour move on this potential election issue is also predicted.

One small consolation for Mr. Kinsella—a former critic and thorn in his side. Otago vice-chancellor, Dr. Arthur Beacham, is on his way back to England. But this alone cannot rescue the minster.