Access or excess? Peptide manufacturing pharmacies at the fault line of South African pharmacy professionalism

Abstract

If you listen carefully to how members of the pharmacy profession within South Africa is speaking about itself now, a pattern emerges. In this edition you will learn that hospital colleagues are writing about evolution from basements/dispensaries to the bedside, about stewardship, innovation and learning from the giants who came before them. Young pharmacists are insisting that relevance and purpose matter more than where on the programme their session appears, and are asking older pharmacists and mentors, hard questions about mentorship, digital health and leadership. Educators are reflecting deeply on how we shape professional identity, not  only competence, under conditions of uncertainty and constraint. I believe this will be a constant, the uncertainty and constraint as  change is a constant; what matters ethically is not whether we can escape it, but whether we respond to it deliberately and responsibly in ways that honour our obligations to patients, colleagues and the public.