Guild Vic president elected chair of RUM

New RUM chair: Dipak Sanghvi

Dipak Sanghvi is the new chair of the National Return and Disposal of Unwanted Medicines (RUM) Project.

The Board elected Mr Sanghvi to succeed Warwick Plunkett at its recent annual general meeting.

Mr Sanghvi is president of the Victorian branch of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, and the national vice president.

Mr Sanghvi paid tribute to outgoing chair Mr Plunkett, who served as chair of the RUM Project Board for more than six years.

"Warwick has been a contributor to pharmacy in many areas for many years, and his overseeing of the success of the RUM Project is an example of his dedication," he said.

Mr Sanghvi said he hoped to build greater consumer awareness of the project, and to use the many established pharmacy networks to confirm the project's objectives.

"In this time of constant change in community pharmacy, we need to ensure governments are aware of the contributions pharmacists make to the well being of consumers.

"I believe the RUM Project demonstrates the commitment community pharmacists have to quality use of medicines, and to the final step in the life of a pharmaceutical - completing the cradle-to-the-grave cycle for medicines," he said.

RUM project manager, Simon Appel, also praised Mr Plunkett's contribution to the project.

"Projects such as ours owe a great deal to the ability of pharmacists like Warwick to maximise the service's benefits to the community and to the pharmacist," he said.

12-Dec-2007