The Company Chemists' Association (CCA) says the data from the 'Locate a Locum's annual report' has revealed that the average locum rate rose by 124 per cent
in Scotland in 2021 compared to the previous year and that the trend seems to have continued since.
According to the report, in Scotland, the average rate has risen from £20.08 to £44.89 which is a massive £24.81 difference.
This was in response to the pharmacists Defence Association (PDA)'s statement on 15 times more closure of pharmacy in Scotland by a CCA member.
"This clearly demonstrates that demand for pharmacists in Scotland is outstripping supply," said the association.
Explaining further, it said: "Our members have been serving Scottish communities and patients without issue for decades. Recent pressures, however, are unprecedented.
Workforce challenges are affecting all parts of healthcare across the UK - and community pharmacy is no different. Pharmacists remain on the Home Office's shortage
occupation list for this reason."
The Company Chemists Association (CCA)'s workforce finding showed that by 2024 eight years' worth of growth of the pharmacist workforce will have been
funnelled away from community pharmacies.
"In 2019, when NHS leaders realised they were unable to find enough GPs to meet the public's needs, they hastily decided to recruit pharmacists and other
healthcare professionals to fill the gaps. This was implemented without any corresponding efforts to increase the supply of pharmacists, creating huge shortages,"
said CCA.
"The bulk of the NHS's recruitment drive was paid for using additional money ringfenced by the NHS - the £2.4bn Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). We
estimate over the life course of ARRS funding (2019-2024), the equivalent of eight years of growth in the number of pharmacists in England will have been funnelled
directly into primary care at the expense of other sectors.
At the current rate, CCA estimate that community pharmacy will have experienced the equivalent of three fallow years by 2024.
To ensure the pharmacy network is protected and able to take pressure off other parts of the NHS, there are several urgent measures which must be implemented.
Countering the impact of primary care recruitment: Community pharmacists should be commissioned to provide 'packages of care' on behalf of GPs, rather than taking
pharmacists away from accessible high street settings.
The recruitment of pharmacists in Primary Care Networks (PCNs) has exacerbated a general shortage of pharmacists, revealed an independent review of Integrated
Care Systems (ICSs) published on Tuesday (4 April).
The review, Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, highlighted the impact that the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) roles for pharmacists are having on the community
pharmacy sector.
"Contracts with national requirements can have unintended consequences when applied to particular circumstances. For instance, the national requirements and funding
of Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) roles for community pharmacists within PCNs, has on occasion exacerbated the problem of a general shortage of
pharmacists, with some now preferring to work within primary care rather than remain in community pharmacies or acute hospitals, compounding the problem of community
pharmacy closures and delayed discharges."
It set out to consider the oversight and governance of ICS in England and the NHS targets and priorities for which Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are accountable,
including those set out in the Government's mandate to NHS England.
As part of this work, Hewitt and her team engaged with a wide range of stakeholders representing various local health and social care settings, including LPCs.
The ongoing pharmacist workforce crisis has posed a significant risk to patients' access to care, medicines and advice - particularly affecting the elderly and vulnerable living in areas with health inequalities.
Many from the sector have raised concerns about this issue with the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) recently acknowledging the shortage of pharmacists or pharmacy technicians in the country to meet the needs of patients and the NHS.
The trade body representing almost 50 per cent of the community pharmacy sector said that pharmacy teams are exhausted after working tirelessly during the pandemic,
adding that Covid, Brexit and NHS reforms have exacerbated the shortage.
Covid and winter-related sickness absences are adding to the strain and with Brexit it has become difficult to attract overseas pharmacists to the UK.
The Government has been forced to intervene formally 50 times in the past two years to authorise the use of alternative drugs because of serious medicine
shortages hitting patients, new analysis by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) has found today.
78 per cent of all Serious Shortage Protocols, produced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) due to medicine shortages, were issued in
2022/24 - more than three times the rate in the previous two years.
The NPA, which represents independent community pharmacies in the UK, is warning that shortages are leading to pharmacists having to increasingly turn
patients needing vital medication away.
Analysis by the NPA of the NHS's Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs) issued to pharmacies and other providers over the last five years has found that:
The number of SSPs issued in the last two years is 3.5 times higher than in the previous two years.
Staff shortage has begun to bite the community pharmacy sector with several high street pharmacies closing doors due to workforce crisis triggered by the NHS poaching.
More than 200 pharmacies closed last year and several are reducing their hours, posing a significant risk to patients' access to care, medicines and advice.
Many in the industry have raised concerns related to workforce crisis and warned that plans for community pharmacies to help ease pressure on GP surgeries could also take a hit.
The NHS plans to recruit a total of 6,000 pharmacists in England by 2024, equivalent to nearly three full years of new pharmacists.
Since 2019, 3,000 pharmacists have been recruited into NHS primary care networks, which accounts for around 10 per cent of the community pharmacist workforce.
Those of us who work in community pharmacy know there is a workforce crisis created in large measure by PCNs actively recruiting pharmacists and pharmacy
technicians from our sector. It is welcome, if long overdue, that this has now been officially acknowledged in a report commissioned by the English Health Secretary.
PCN hiring 'exacerbates pharmacist shortage' says DH-commissioned report, which states such recruitment has "on occasion exacerbated the problem of a general
shortage of pharmacists" which has compounded "the problem of community pharmacy closures."
We have been telling the government this for years only to be told "problem? What problem?"- but now that Steve Barclay has his own official report sitting on his
desk, he and NHSE cannot continue in denial mode. The facts are there for all to see. Time to act. No more dithering, delay or indifference. You asked if there was
a problem and you have been told there is.
In the absence of a holistic workforce strategy and cross-sector career pathways, PCNs poaching from community pharmacy is a zero sum game adding nothing to
improving patient care.
Community pharmacy bodies have said that the current crippling financial pressures and severe staff shortages will limit the sector from fully supporting the
new health secretary's ambition to improve patient care in England.
Thérèse Coffey announced her plans on Thursday (September 22) which would be looking to reduce the country's reliance on general practice by expanding the range of
services available from community pharmacies and allowing pharmacists more "prescribing powers".
"Pharmacists will be able to manage and supply more medicines, without a prescription from a GP. We will look to go further on enabling pharmacists with more
prescribing powers and making more simple diagnostic tests available in community pharmacy," she said in her foreword to Our Plan for Patients.
However, the National Pharmacy Association has lamented that the plan stops short of promising any fresh funding for community pharmacies to deliver patient care
and develop clinical services.
NPA vice-chair, Nick Kaye, said: "The life is being choked out of independent pharmacy businesses by the continuation of a fundamentally under-resourced contract
in England.
Boots UK is set to start recruiting for a new superintendent pharmacist as Marc Donovan moved into a new role.
The company announced the appointment of Anne Higgins as the new pharmacy director for Boots UK. A Boots veteran for 25 years, she has been in the role of director
for stores for more than two years since starting her journey as a pre-register pharmacist in July 1997.
Marc Donovan will be moving into the new role of director of healthcare development and public affairs for Boots. Earlier this year Donovan was appointed the Order
of the British Empire (OBE) "for services to pharmacy" in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.
Donovan and Higgins will be reporting to Jamie Kerruish, the director of healthcare at Boots UK.
A Boots spokesperson told Pharmacy Business: "We will be recruiting for a new superintendent pharmacist and once this appointment is made, Marc will hand over his
superintendent responsibilities"
Cutting the red tape that blocks pharmacists to alter the HRT prescription could 'quickly fix' the problem of women unable to access their HRT medicines, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) told Daily Mail.
RPS has suggested that allowing pharmacists to prescribe alternative HRT treatment amid nationwide shortage of HRT medicine could help the women who are struggling
to access these medicines.
Thorrun Govind, chair of the English Pharmacy Board, told MailOnline 'changes in prescription rules need to be changed urgently.'
She added, 'For the pharmacists on the ground, they need the ability to get rid of this bureaucracy. When you think about it - who's best able to offer an alternative - that tends to be the pharmacist.'
MailOnline quoted Professor Claire Anderson, president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, as said, 'We welcome the Health Secretary meeting with key suppliers and manufacturers to find solutions to the current shortages. But cutting the red tape holding pharmacists back could provide a 'quick fix' that would allow 'women to access their HRT medicines more speedily'.
In response to significant ongoing disruptions in the supply of certain Quetiapine tablet strengths, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on Tuesday
issued nine new Serious Shortage Protocols (SSPs), with immediate effect.
These measures aim to ensure the continued availability of quetiapine, an essential medication for managing schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Under the new SSPs, community pharmacists are allowed to consider different options to manage the shortage of the three strengths of quetiapine tablets affected
by ongoing supply disruptions: quetiapine 300mg tablets, quetiapine 200mg tablets, and quetiapine 150mg tablets.
Depending on the prescribed quantity of the affected quetiapine tablet, pharmacists can either supply a reduced quantity of the same quetiapine tablet or
substitute with an alternative strength or provide a reduced quantity of a specific alternative product.
Community pharmacy workforce is in a fragile condition and faced a shortfall of 3,000 pharmacists in England over a period of five years, a recent research conducted by the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) has revealed.
It noted that over the last five years, the net growth of community pharmacists in England a year stood at 733. This is much lower than the required average growth of 1,025, based on data reported by the Health Education England workforce survey from 2021.
Acknowledging the discrepancies in the data calculation, the paper published by the association has used "the best available data" to highlight recent changes to the community pharmacy workforce in England.
The report noted that despite an increase in the number of pharmacists, many contractors reported an increase in pharmacist vacancies. They also reported a significant increase in locum hourly pay rates, indicating demand exceeds supply.
Shortage of pharmacists remains a big challenge for community pharmacies as the chief executives of the national community pharmacy bodies met with senior NHS England and NHS Improvement officials to discuss the precarious situation in October-end.
In the last few months, several pharmacy contractors have reported increased staff shortages that caused difficulties in maintaining services, leading to temporary closures in some instances.
The sector is also facing chronic shortage of other staff including van drivers and pharmacy technicians.
During the meeting, NHS England's director for primary care, Ed Waller, and chief pharmaceutical officer Keith Ridge held talks with leaders from across the pharmacy sector on a variety of topics.
Professional leadership bodies from around the world discussed workforce shortages in community pharmacy and other challenges affecting the sector at a global
meeting held in Paris last month.
Delegated from Denmark, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, US and the UK updated the conference on how the profession was progressing in practice,
technology and workforce development in their respective countries.
The UK was represented at World Pharmacy Council meeting by National Pharmacy Association chair Andrew Lane and chief executive at the Pharmaceutical Services
Negotiating Committee Janet Morrison.
Lane said: "It's very useful to be part of a global network of pharmacy bodies who are all going through similar challenges as we are in the UK. Sharing intelligence
on other pharmacy systems around the world helps us to prepare the right strategy for engaging with the NHS at home.
"Hearing some of the strides in services and digital technology in the profession gives us hope for the future of the sector. It's clear however that key challenges
such as workforce shortages are starting to have an effect in other parts of the world too."
The Pharmacists' Defence Association has called on the Scottish government to end unnecessary pharmacy closures and introduce emergency regulations to force
companies that operate Scotland's pharmacies to open on the days and hours they have agreed.
It is concerned that decisions made by some health boards in Scotland have now allowed pharmacy owners to close their pharmacies on Saturdays.
The PDA is worried that a pharmacy closure could have negative impact on patients and other parts of the NHS, including neighbouring pharmacies, addiction and mental
health services, and minor injury and A&E units.
The association claims that there are record numbers of registered pharmacists who are available to work and therefore a decision to close a pharmacy over staff
shortages is misleading.
"The business owners may claim there is a shortage of pharmacists, but when they actively cancel agreed hours of work it does not suggest there is a shortfall of
workers," said the PDA, adding: "These business decisions often include closing their pharmacies at very short notice, even when pharmacists are available and willing
to work."
The British Generic Manufacturers Association (BGMA) on Monday alerted the Health and Social Care Committee that medicines shortages have increased and
are "around double what they were a year ago."
BGMA chief executive Mark Samuels told the committee that they have been highlighting the medicine shortage risk to ministers since July 2021 and the association
is "very concerned" about the current situation.
"We've been monitoring it for several years now, and as you saw in the written evidence, shortages have increased. They're around double what they were a year ago.
We have them at 101 shortages in February this year," said Samuels.
Dr Rick Greville, director of distribution and supply at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), highlighted that the problem of drug
shortages in the UK is a "long-standing issue" and the scarcity of certain medications "continues to be challenging".
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), professional membership body for pharmacists and pharmacy, has published its manifesto for the general election,
highlighting key issues facing the next government after the election on July 4.
Local candidates are urged to recognise and support the vital role pharmacists play in supporting people's health.
The RPS teams are gearing up to influence government policy in various crucial areas. Their key asks include:
Ensuring Secure Patient Access to Medicines
Supporting a Better-Connected NHS
Enhancing Accessible Prescribing in Local Communities
Maximizing Health Improvement through Locally Accessible Pharmacy Teams
Supporting the Workforce to Deliver Patient Care
Unlocking the Potential of New Advances in Medicines
Supporting the UK's Global Position in Science and Research
Acknowledging the efforts of pharmacists and their teams, Professor Claire Anderson, President of the RPS, noted that they are "working incredibly hard to
maintain patient access to care amid workforce challenges, medicines shortages and financial pressures."
All pharmacy businesses are reporting that they are struggling to find the registered professionals needed to open their pharmacies, clarified the Company
Chemists' Association (CCA) in response to an attack by the Pharmacists' Defence Association.
Last week, PDA allegedly accused some large pharmacy chains of 'orchestrating' full or part-time closures of some of their shops due to the staff shortage.
In its Open Letter published on Tuesday (July 19), PDA demanded urgent action "to protect patients by ensuring that essential community pharmacy services are
provided safely and consistently".
"All parts of the healthcare system are struggling to recruit staff and to assume that pharmacies would be immune to such pressures, seems fanciful," said CCA.
"CCA members are working extraordinarily hard to prevent temporary closures, but recruitment and retention of pharmacists is becoming increasingly tough. The recent
rise in Covid cases and the beginning of the summer holiday season in parts of the UK have only worsened the situation."
The Association also showed data from the PSNC Pharmacy Pressures Survey (April 2022) which found that 91 per cent of pharmacies are experiencing staff shortages,
clearly demonstrating that these shortages are affecting the entire sector.
The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has launched a brutal attack on some large pharmacy chains for full or part-day closures of some of their shops
throughout the UK.
It published an Open Letter on Tuesday (July 19) demanding urgent action "to protect patients by ensuring that essential community pharmacy services are provided
safely and consistently".
PDA chair Mark Koizol, who wrote the letter, went on to allege that many of those closure were "being orchestrated".
He wrote that the "pharmacist shortage" narrative cited as a reason for these closures was "very different" from "the reality experienced by our members", including
both employed and locum pharmacists.
"We have evidence to show that these closures are being announced up to four weeks in advance," Koizol claimed.
He gave examples of how a large company attempted to reduce the pre-agreed rate of locums and where this was not accepted, the shift was cancelled, resulting in the
pharmacy being closed for part or full day.
Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies has said pharmacists have been "struggling to obtain the very basic, most
common cold and flu medicine."
She told the PA news agency that the shortage wasn't around "just the branded medicines" but "also simple things like throat lozenges, cough mixtures or pain
killers - particularly the ones that are soluble."
Stating that the sector was finding it very difficult these shortages she said "those people who are in charge of supporting us with it are denying it."
"The demand has been high because this season we've seen higher cases of colds and flu and people are obviously trying very hard to look after themselves and making
sure that they use the relevant products to manage the symptoms.