A Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) data analysis has warned that the community pharmacist workforce will fail to meet NHS England’s (NHSE) target of recruiting “34,000 full-time incoming pharmacists” by 2036/37.
For community pharmacy to meet the aims set out in NHSE’s workforce plan, the workforce must “increase by 65% over the next 12 years or so”, it found.
Read more: NHSE announces 29% increase in pharmacist training places by 2028/29
Speaking at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham on Monday (October 14), CCA policy and programmes manager Sam Chidlow told delegates that the growth of the community pharmacist workforce is not just “behind schedule”, it is “in decline”.
“Even if every new registrant who joined a GPhC register every single year was funnelled directly into the community pharmacy sector and there was no recruitment into primary care or hospitals, we would still miss the NHSE target by over two years,” Chidlow said.
“540 years”
NHSE’s long term workforce plan was released in June last year and set out measures to boost the number of pharmacist training places over the coming years.
But despite this, the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) community pharmacists has “decreased substantially” since 2021, Chidlow told delegates.
Read more: ‘A sad day for community pharmacy’: Sector reacts to NHSE workforce plan
“At current rates of growth, it will take almost 540 years to meet the target set out by NHSE,” he said, with the average year seeing “an increase of 25 pharmacists” between 2017 and 2022.
“An additional 900” pharmacists would need to join the workforce every year for the next 15 years “to get to where we want to be”, which would require “almost double” the number of students, graduates and foundation year placements each year, he added.
“No clear plan”
“The workload of pharmacists is increasing exponentially – they’re doing more and more services, more and more dispensing, and providing more advice to patients who can’t access care elsewhere,” he said.
And he added that the sector is “on a downward trajectory that will decrease capacity of the workforce”, with the number of pharmacy technicians “also a cause for alarm”.
“There is no clear plan for us to reach a 34,000 FTE target as set out by NHSE, and without doing so, we will not be able to deliver the care that NHS patients need,” he said.
Read more: What does the NHS workforce plan really mean for pharmacy staffing issues?
Chidlow told delegates that “targeted actions” are needed to increase the community pharmacist workforce.
The CCA believes that the NHS must “immediately hold a recruitment of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in its primary care networks (PCNs) through the additional roles reimbursement scheme (ARRS)”, he added.
Read more: NHSE to ‘extend success’ of ARRS under workforce plans
But “none of this is achievable without additional funding for employers to support the workforce”, Chidlow told delegates.
When the NHSE workforce plan was first announced last year, it received mixed reactions from the sector – with some calling it a “sad day for community pharmacy”.
