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Is the hourly rate back in the Dark Ages?

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Is the hourly rate back in the Dark Ages?

Pharmacy has a crucial role to play in the delivery of UK healthcare and remuneration should reflect that, says Mike Smith

It really depresses me to learn that pharmacists are now prepared to work for £10 per hour. When re-skilling was at the top of the agenda I predicted that that this would devalue the role of pharmacists – it has done exactly that.

Pharmacists devote five years of their lives to education to earn their hard-won professional qualification and they are then expected to work for an hourly rate that clearly does not reflect their contribution and status as health professionals.

Of course, there are several reasons for this situation:

  1. The unsatisfactory remuneration model for community pharmacy – this has yet to be addressed. We still have no information about the DH offer and outcome of the Cost of Service Inquiry.
  2. We are producing too many pharmacists.
  3. This means that a newly registered pharmacist (having been fortunate enough to find a pre-reg position in the first place) is faced with unemployment, moving into another sector or working for a tenner an hour. No wonder some are becoming disillusioned and moving away from pharmacy.

I have said for many years that if the DH could get their dispensing done for ten bob (50p in real money) they would do so – and they are well on their way to achieving that. This is despite the fact that we have ‘a crucial role’ to play in the delivery of healthcare in the UK.

To add insult to injury, because this inadequate level of NHS remuneration is received from the public sector and contributes more than 50 per cent of our income, we are even excluded from a business tax break of a £2,000 reduction in NIC costs. Surely community pharmacy is the type of small business that the prime minister is so keen to support. The Treasury should revisit the situation faced by community pharmacists. It is clear that newly qualified pharmacists and locums will have to raise their game to offer more to prospective employers. In recognition of this pharmacists must be paid at a rate that recognises the fact that they are highly qualified professionals with huge responsibility.

On the question of raising the game, it is disappointing that the recent GPhC survey revealed that only 74 per cent of prescribing pharmacists had ever prescribed an item. This demonstrates a total lack of will to commission these services and means that independent prescriber skills are going to waste.

Pharmacists are expected to work for an hourly rate that clearly does not reflect their contribution and status as health professionals

Pharmacist Sid Dajani has been quoted as saying that pharmacist prescribing was the most significant development in community pharmacy for 100 years, but underutilised by the NHS. I wholeheartedly echo these words – I have only been qualified for a mere 46 years, but when I first registered the thought of pharmacist prescribing was not even a dream. We are expected to do more for less, and then are not even recognised for it.

I am struggling this month to be positive – my wife and I have just recovered from a particularly virulent attack of D&V. This certainly underlined to us the importance of loperamide and rehydration therapy. How times have changed from the days of kaolin and morphine mixture (that we used to call stomach cement).

I am hoping that this is the reason for my pessimistic notes this month, but I can honestly see little in the world of pharmacy to lift my spirits and give cause for optimism.

I fear that the predictions in the AT Kearney report will manifest themselves in the form of gradual attrition: reduction in pay rates, falling staff levels, doing more for less, fighting for services – then fighting to get paid for them.

Welcome to the new age for pharmacy!

Mike Smith is chairman of Alliance Healthcare.

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