A “delighted and humbled” Ash Soni has been re-elected as president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

The organisation remains “the guardian of professional leadership” for pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists, he said.

“As president, I will ensure I take every opportunity to promote our great profession to help people to understand why [pharmacists] are such an important part of integrating care. At the same time, I will promote the great value this organisation offers to all pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists.

“I will support the [national] boards as they deliver their plans to increase the involvement of pharmacists within multidisciplinary team. We are seeing growth in the roles that pharmacists are playing but we must continue to drive for this to be in an integrated way recognising that all pharmacists in all settings are scientific clinicians.”

Perhaps with the current supervision debate in mind, he reaffirmed his belief that every community pharmacy must have a pharmacist present. “But I would go much further than this,” he emphasised.

“I believe wherever there are medicines, the profession should have a presence. In community pharmacies... pharmacists have a current and growing range of opportunities to have a positive impact on healthcare. As new roles continue to evolve we must not lose sight of enhancing the traditional roles in community... pharmacy.”

He said he would work closely with the national board chairs to ensure they can deliver on their ambitions for pharmacists in individual countries and also collectively where there is a common goal for the profession – for example, by campaigning to remove the automatic criminalisation of pharmacists who commit inadvertent dispensing errors.

“Those that know me well know I am passionate to ensure we are all able to practice to the best of our capability and skill. I promise to bring that passion to the presidency.”