Nexxus Scotland

Honorary degree for Scotland's top pharmacist

29 June 2009

Scotland's most senior pharmacist is today to receive an Honorary Degree from the University of Strathclyde, in recognition of more than 30 years of sterling work in the profession.

Professor Bill Scott, who has been Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for the Scottish Executive and Scottish Government since 1993, is to be presented with a Doctorate of Science by the University.  He advises on all pharmaceutical matters to the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and other public bodies, as well as providing leadership to the pharmaceutical profession in Scotland. He also holds an MSc in Industrial Pharmacology from Strathclyde.

Professor Graham Coombs, Head of the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and Strathclyde School of Pharmacy, said: "Bill's time as Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has been a period of enormous change in the ways in which the pharmacy profession contributes to human health and well-being and he has been instrumental in initiating and guiding this transition.

"Pharmacists clearly have a key role to play in dealing with health problems and helping to deal with the current flu pandemic is just one example of the central role that Bill plays in healthcare in Scotland. Another of Bill's current actions is to put forward a new Pharmacy Action Plan which will undoubtedly influence still further the pharmacy profession in Scotland over the next decades."

Born in Bellshill, South Lanarkshire, and raised in Shotts, North Lanarkshire, Professor Scott first worked as a technician in a steel company and a sewerage works,  while attending night classes to extend his qualifications. This enabled him to have a year at Napier College in Edinburgh before entering the School of Pharmacy at Heriot-Watt University and undertaking a pharmacy degree.

After graduating in 1973, Professor Scott came to Strathclyde to study for an MSc in Industrial Pharmacology. He undertook his pre-registration year in Greater Glasgow Health Board and registered as a pharmacist in 1975.

After a brief spell working as a pharmacist in England, he returned to work for more than 10 years with Lothian Health Board. During this time, he introduced clinical pharmacy into hospital practice, developed a therapeutic drug monitoring service in his practice and helped to re‑structure the MSc in hospital pharmacy to a clinical pharmacy course which was initiated at Strathclyde.

In 1987, Professor Scott became Chief Pharmaceutical Officer of Tayside Health Board. He was responsible for a number of innovations there, including a restructuring of the hospital pharmaceutical service, the introduction of a comprehensive clinical pharmacy service throughout Tayside hospitals, and revised teaching methods and courses for post-qualification education - among them schemes which allowed PhD and MSc studies by pharmacy staff. 

Professor Scott joined the former Scottish Office in 1990and was responsible for a review of specialisation in NHS hospital pharmaceutical services, rationalising NHS pharmacy special medicines manufacture in Scotland, devising and implementing needle exchange schemes for community pharmacies, and establishing a pharmacy practice research programme.         

Since becoming Chief Pharmacutical Officer in 1993, and particularly since the advent of devolution in 1999, Professor Scott has had further opportunities for pioneering work. He produced and implemented a strategy for Scotland to manage the NHS drugs bill, fundamentally changed the method of remunerating community pharmacists, developed national guidelines on clinical pharmacy practice in hospitals and primary care, was architect and principal lead for a new and innovative community pharmacy contract in Scotland and developed the strategies for a pharmacy walk-in service.

Professor Scott was made a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in 2003. In 2008, he was given an award by the Society in recognition of his outstanding services to pharmacists.

The Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences is currently the subject of an £8 million fundraising campaign for a £36 million new building to expand and enhance its work in developing new medicines for diseases including heart disease, cancer, infectious diseases and schizophrenia.

For further information contact Paul Gallagher, Press Officer, University of Strathclyde T: 0141 548 2370, E: paul.gallagher@strath.ac.uk.

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