The overall state of the UK pharmacist workforce matters to PDA members and is an issue that continues to cause significant debate and discourse around the causes and potential remedies, such as attempts to block the migration of individuals from other sectors to primary care roles, and lobbying government to include the profession on the occupation shortage list.
The PDA has not seen evidence that there is a genuine shortage of pharmacists, and indeed recent analysis of the number of pharmacists entering the GPhC register supports that it is a myth that new roles in GP practice have caused shortages. Currently, though official evaluation of the pharmacist workforce does not seem to address the elephant in the room; that this is an issue which cannot be resolved by the blocking of recruitment or adding significantly more pharmacists to the register and offering them the same roles and conditions that some current pharmacists are refusing to accept.
The PDA believes that responsible employers faced with a workforce crisis of this nature would reflect hard on what this means, identify the reasons for such concerns, and improve the situation. Instead, the representatives of community pharmacy employers seem to consider everything else except addressing those root causes that are within their control, such as improving working conditions, enabling protected training time, and agreeing to fair reward as well as providing adequate levels of support staff, and offering flexibility and career development opportunities.
For some time, members have told the PDA that there are several reasons why some pharmacists are choosing not to work in certain roles, for some employers, or that because the dominant conditions in the sector are so bad, they would rather work outside of practice than in community pharmacy.
Though the PDA hears that message loud and clear and repeats it to employers, their representatives, and other stakeholders, the PDA now needs that information in a format that can be analysed statistically.
The PDA is therefore asking for feedback from members around their current roles and possible career intentions to help inform this important debate.
Please complete the survey by clicking the button below and please encourage your pharmacist colleagues to do so too.
Related links
- Inclusion on shortage occupation list demonstrates how there is something broken in regards to pharmacist pay rates
- The workforce impact of pharmacists working in Primary Care – what does the data tell us?
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