Welcome to the Pharmacy Law and Ethics Association (PLEA)
PLEA is an independent, non-profit association for pharmacy professionals who are involved in law and ethics and for lawyers or ethicists who are involved in pharmacy. We welcome pharmacists, former pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and lawyers whose work or interests comprise the application of law, ethics and professionalism to pharmacy practice in all its forms, as well as academics, trainers and students in pharmacy education in the UK and elsewhere.
PLEA aims
To be a forum for the study and development of legal and ethical aspects of pharmacy practice and promote understanding of the ethical basis for professional judgment
To identify and debate legal or ethical questions raised by the developing nature of pharmacy practice
To provide informed comment, reports, or representations where appropriate, on legal and ethical issues arising in pharmacy practice
To provide educational opportunities for members and others who are interested in pharmacy law and ethics
NOTICE BOARD
We are deeply saddened to report the death from COVID-19 of our founder, Joy Wingfield.
Joy was chair of the Pharmacy Law & Ethics Association until 2015.
Early in Joy’s career, she was an inspector of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain when it was the regulator of the pharmacy profession. Later, she became Boots Special Professor of Pharmacy Law and Ethics at the University of Nottingham. In 2009, she was also appointed visiting professor of pharmacy law and ethics at the University of Hertfordshire.
Joy was a titan in the field of pharmacy law and ethics. With Gordon Appelbe and, later, Karen Pitchford, she edited Dale & Appelbe’s Pharmacy and Medicines Law (the original title was Pharmacy Law & Ethics) from the fifth edition in 1993 until the eleventh edition in 2017. She was also the co-author of Pharmacy Ethics and Decision Making (2007) and the author of Practical Exercises in Pharmacy Law and Ethics (1997, 2002). Joy made many contributions to the Pharmaceutical Journal and her wit often came through. For example, when writing on the vexed subject of decriminalising dispensing errors, she began a PJ article in 2015 “Well hooray and alleluia! A ray of common sense pierces the clouds of officialdom.”
Following her retirement, Joy became Honorary Professor of Pharmacy Law and Ethics at the University of Nottingham. Until 2017, Joy maintained a pharmacy consultancy, Wingfield Works, enabling pharmacists and organisations to continue to benefit from her expertise and wisdom. She retained an interest in PLEA and was in touch over the date of our 2020 seminar which she had hoped to attend.
In Joy’s long career, she made a major contribution to the subject of pharmacy law and ethics, breaking new ground in the way she brought to the fore the subject of ethics in pharmacy teaching and practice.
