The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has published a new five-year strategy for 2021-2026, which explains how it will continue its mission to ‘put pharmacy at the forefront of healthcare’.

The document, published yesterday (24 May), also outlines the body’s objective to make itself a ‘world leader’ in the safe and effective use of medicines, which it first set out in 2018.

Among the seven goals listed in the five-year plan, RPS said it wants to ensure it is a ‘recognised leader’ on ‘pharmacy practice, policy and education, for pharmacy, pharmaceutical science and the safe use of medicines'.

It also wants to improve on ‘organisational effectiveness’ by working with its members to create ‘a viable, efficient and financially sustainable organisation’, the document said.

Paul Bennett, chief executive of the RPS, said the new strategy will help ‘provide a solid framework for RPS to prepare and support the profession for a dynamic future in which pharmacy and pharmacists play a central role wherever medicines are used by patients’.

He added that the goals listed in the plan were the ‘result of careful analysis of the environment pharmacy operates in, as well as demographic and regulatory considerations’.

‘Our focus will now be to collaborate with our members and our extensive network of partners across Great Britain to make the ambitions in this plan a reality and ultimately improve outcomes for patients across the healthcare system,’ he said.

The strategy has been launched during RPS’s 180th year – a milestone recently recognised in a letter from the Queen.

The RPS also announced the results of its national pharmacy board elections earlier this month.