Join C+D’s next Big Debate on pharmacist shortages on December 15
With impassioned discussions raging around the sector about whether there is or isn’t a shortage of pharmacists, join the next Big Debate on the C+D Community to share your own views.
C+D’s sixth Big Debate on the peer-to-peer C+D Community platform will take place next week on December 15. It will be chaired by the brand’s editor Beth Kennedy between 7 and 8pm.
Pharmacists were added to the government’s ‘shortage occupation list’ earlier this year – a decision that was welcomed by the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp), which at the time told C+D that “community pharmacies continue to lose experienced pharmacists to primary care network (PCN)-related activity”.
Experimental data published by NHS Digital last month revealed that the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) pharmacists reported to be working for a PCN in England stood at 2,626 as of the end of September.
Meanwhile, in August, Community Pharmacy Scotland warned that the “uncoordinated recruitment” of pharmacy professionals to GP and primary care support roles “is now one of the major and enduring contributing factors to [community pharmacy’s] unprecedented workforce pressures”.
But the Company Chemists’ Association's (CCA) complaints that temporary and permanent closures of community pharmacies will “be unavoidable” if the government does not take action to resolve the pharmacist workforce crisis in primary care were challenged on social media by several locum pharmacists arguing that the number of registered pharmacists has never been higher.
Data obtained via a freedom-of-information request by support group The Pharmacist Cooperative – which it published on its website on December 2 – revealed that there are 56,943 registered pharmacists on the General Pharmaceutical Council’s register, representing an increase of 6,278 pharmacists compared with 2015.
Join your pharmacy peers to discuss:
- What is the lie of the land and how did we get here?
- What impact has the push for more GP/PCN pharmacists had on recruitment and retention in community pharmacy?
- What impact have locum rates and demand had on recruitment and retention in community pharmacy?
- Has community pharmacy got a bad rep?
To join the debate on December 15, register for free on the C+D Community or sign up via LinkedIn.
