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Locum pharmacists have reported a 10 per cent drop in their average rates since 2021 and a significant year-on-year reduction in the number of shifts available each week, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association has said. 

Commenting last week on its recent survey of over 1,300 locum pharmacists, the PDA said the findings reveal that hourly rates have plummeted to as low as £17 in Northern Ireland, £18 in the English Midlands and £19 in London. 

And those booking ‘emergency’ last-minute shifts report “very little difference” between these and ‘routine’ bookings, the PDA added. 

One pharmacist told the PDA: “As a community pharmacist who registered 20 years ago, I received £25-£30 per hour plus full travel and paid accommodation if I worked away from home.

“It’s nothing short of a professional scandal that Locums are being paid as low as £25-£26 today, which is a massive real terms cut considering inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.

“I am unaware of any other profession where such rate stagnation has occurred.”

Many employers are also now refusing to cover expenses for travel or accommodations, with 59 per cent saying they are never paid expenses – up from 22 per cent in 2021. 

Five per cent of locums reported always being paid expenses, down from 14 per cent four years ago. 

The PDA survey indicated that many locums are working fewer hours than they wish to, with 73 per cent saying they’d like to work between three and five days a week and 59 per cent working three or less days. 

Sixty-nine per cent of respondents ticked boxes stating there are now ‘fewer’ or ‘far fewer’ shifts available than there were last year. 

Some reported that with the drop in the corporate chains’ market share and the rise in the number of owner-run pharmacies, many contractors are taking on work themselves that might otherwise be carried out by locums.  

Read more: Nine-tenths of pharmacies have stopped using locums ‘on cost grounds’

‘Booking platforms block pay negotiations’

The trade union raised concern about the impact shift booking platforms have on market trends, with the survey responses suggesting that 87 per cent of those using an agency or platform – Locate a Locum was by far the most commonly used at 85 per cent – said they “could never, or only occasionally, negotiate the rates for a shift”. 

“It would appear, from the survey responses, that many locum pharmacists believe that agencies/platforms that profit from their activity still do not act in their interests,” said the PDA, adding that it “believes that such an approach, solely focused on squeezing community pharmacists for profit, is not a sustainable business practice”.

It contrasted these experiences with locums who “have managed to build good relations with small chains or independent contractors” and have seen “less of a decline” in rates and shift availability. 

These trends are emerging at the same time as roles are becoming more complex with the introduction of new clinical services and more frequent signposting by other health providers to community pharmacies, said the PDA, which declared it will consider the next steps needed to address “an alarming imbalance in the promotion of business interests over those of the individual professional”.

Read more: Take screenshots, PDA tells locums amid ‘increase’ in employers reneging on terms