Erutase Oputu, who has worked in the NHS and hospital pharmacy for more than 25 years, has been elected as chair of the English Pharmacy Board.

The appointment of Oputu, the hospital lead pharmacist at Barts Health NHS Trust, is expected to lead to greater transparency at the professional leadership body given her pledge in the run-up to the elections to “implement post-Board meeting communication by our elected members via social media posts in order to connect with the profession and beyond.”

She had said it was “important that members and potential members can see the good work being done by the Board and the RPS” and insisted she would “pursue much-needed Board development workshops” to ensure the EPB “can work effectively together.”

Oputu, who takes over as chair from Thorrun Govind who was elected to the RPS Assembly, also promised to engage with the British Pharmaceutical Students Association “in order to connect with pharmacy students so they can understand the significance of membership of the RPS in their early careers.”

Brendon Jiang was elected vice-chair while Ciara Duffy, Alisdair Jones and Sorbi Khattak were elected to the Assembly.

Andrew Carruthers was re-elected as chair of the Scottish Pharmacy Board and Geraldine McCaffrey was elected as chair of the Welsh Pharmacy Board. Cheryl Way was elected to the Assembly.

In the run-up to the elections, Carruthers, who has pushed for RPS members to be able to attend and observe Board meetings, said he wanted to create an “online RPS community” which would allow members and RPS staff to “share learning, inspire and enable development and build a supportive online community for the profession.”

In her manifesto, McCaffrey said she would continue promoting the RPS’ work in areas such as independent prescribing, career pathways and credentialing, personalised medicine and health inequalities.