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The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has reacted to the chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) for Wales's offer for community pharmacy contractors, offering a funding uplift for community pharmacy on the condition of an increase in pay for some staff by at least the amount currently being imposed upon NHS employees. The PDA has expressed a mixed reaction to the intervention being attempted by the Welsh government. "It is unusual for a government to be so closely involved in the pay of their suppliers' employees and those at some community pharmacy employers have a contractual right to a pay review at times of year that may not synchronize with the government's financial cycle, so this initiative may have different impacts at different employers," said the association. "In addition, the PDA negotiates pay at the largest two community pharmacy employers and works alongside other trade unions that organise other pharmacy workers. This government intervention must not disrupt or attempt to bypass those processes."

We have been specialising in community pharmacy sector for over 30 years and have helped many pharmacists acquire their first pharmacy. We have seen several of those first-time buyers transition into multiple pharmacy owners under our specialist guidance and support through the years. Acquiring the first pharmacy can be a challenge to most pharmacists especially when they do not have the necessary skill in reading the numbers presented in terms of the target pharmacy's performance and how to interpret these in order to arrive at a valuation for the purpose of submitting an offer. Without the guidance of a specialist accountant in community pharmacy, one of the major risks is that one could end up paying more than what the pharmacy is worth. Once the offer is accepted, there are other challenges to overcome to get the deal over the line. 1) Assessing the risk 2) Valuation of the business 3) The negotiation process 4) Asset or company purchase 5) Financial due diligence 6) Asset/share purchase agreement 7) Finance the purchase

Women accounted for 62 per cent of GPhC registrants in 2019, according to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Despite representing the majority of pharmacists in the UK, only 2 per cent of women are pharmacy business owners compared with 13 per cent of men. Also, the majority of senior pharmacy leadership positions are held by men, with research showing that only 36 per cent of senior pharmacy leaders are women. Sobha Sharma Kandel, superintendent pharmacist and co-owner of Neem Tree Pharmacy, Abbey Wood, London, quoted these statistics while shedding light on the representation of female leaders in the field of pharmacy. So, what is stopping women from reaching leadership positions in the profession? According to Sobha, the barriers hindering female pharmacists from attaining leadership positions include: Gender Bias and Stereotypes Lack of Representation and Role Models Glass Ceiling and Double Standards Work-Life Balance Challenges Imposter Syndrome Unequal Access to Opportunities Negotiation and Advocacy Challenges "There also continue to be gender and ethnicity pay gaps affecting women in pharmacy," said Sobha, who has been advocating for women in pharmacy by being a part of the Female Pharmacy Leaders Network.

Boots and the PDA Union negotiating teams have reached an agreement on this year's pay claim, following constructive negotiations between both parties. The new pay deal will come into effect from 1 November 2024. Under the agreement, all eligible pharmacists and pharmacist store managers within the bargaining unit will receive a 4 per cent pay award, recognising their unique role within the community pharmacy sector and the business. Pharmacists and pharmacist store managers will qualify for the negotiated rates if they are members of the bargaining unit, employed as of 1 November 2024, and not serving a notice period. However, the pay award will not apply to those who have joined or had a pay increase on or since 1 August 2024, were rated as not performing at EOY 2024, or are a trainee pharmacist. All qualified pharmacists in the bargaining unit with over 10 years of service at Boots will receive a minimum of £53,000 FTE per annum, while all substantively appointed and performing Boots Pharmacist Store Managers will be paid a minimum of £55,000 FTE per annum.

Pharmacy contractors, particularly those in England and Northern Ireland, faced an extremely challenging 2024. The general election delayed the new Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework (CPCF) negotiations leaving pharmacies in England having to endure further hardship, as a frankly unfit 2019 contract, was effectively extended. We have witnessed pharmacy closures on a weekly basis and it is clear that an increasing number of English contractors are struggling to pay their wholesaler bills on time. It is unacceptable that the Government have allowed this to happen. In Scotland and Wales settlements have factored in inflation, which is essential for the future. Whilst we should be cautiously optimistic about the NHS plan under the new Labour government, I'm acutely aware that the sector urgently needs an injection of cash to help offset the last five years of chronic underfunding. The next English CPCF must be inflation linked, the sector cannot absorb ever-increasing costs. Pharmacy teams already work incredibly hard to deliver care to their patients and communities.

After a series of internal pay negotiations and conciliation meetings, Boots has made a revised pay offer to its pharmacists. With the new development, the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has urged its members at Boots to "urgently respond to the Boots pay negotiations update survey on the current pay offer." It encouraged the members to complete the short survey sent to them via email. Last week, the PDA Reps Network in Boots hosted a series of virtual meetings for members that work at the company. As the element of the negotiations with Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) are ongoing, PDA could not provide more details about these meetings.

Boots pharmacists will receive a pay rise of 4.5 per cent as the pharmacy multiple and PDA Union jointly announce this year's pay settlement. Following discussions between Boots management services and the PDA Union negotiators, the agreement was reached in relation to this year's pay claim, effective from 1 November 2022. The union also announced that those who have already had a pay increase on or since 1 August 2022, where that increase has been less than 4.5 per cent, a 'top up' increase will be provided, from 1 November 2022, to ensure that all eligible members of the bargaining unit receive a pay increment of not less than 4.5 per cent in 2022. Boots and the PDA Union have agreed an increase to the pay of those above the maximum market range by 4 per cent with an additional 0.5 per cent non-consolidated payment.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has expressed "extreme disappointment" that the UK government offered new pay to NHS consultants, while nursing pay deal remain disputed. RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen has written to new Health Secretary Victoria Atkins demanding fresh negotiations regarding this year's pay deal, and requested an urgent meeting to discuss their dispute. Pat warned that more than 100,000 RCN members in England voted for continued strike action in June, as they feel undervalued. "The government has now shown it has the political will to negotiate on pay reform for some of the highest earners in the NHS in contrast to our members who received the lowest pay rise in the public sector," she wrote in the letter. NHS nursing staff in England was awarded a five per cent pay rise 2023/24, but the union argued that it is not enough to keep up with inflation.

Trainee pharmacists at Boots in England and Northern Ireland will get a pay increase from 1st August. The new pay rates agreed between the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) Union and Boots was announced on Tuesday (4 July). The joint statement released by Boots and PDA Union said: "Following discussions, we are pleased to announce that there will be a pay increase for Trainee Pharmacists, in England and Northern Ireland, commencing in role this summer." Trainee Pharmacists working in Boots Pharmacies in Wales are employed directly by the NHS and are therefore outside the scope of the pay negotiations between Boots and the PDA Union. Funding for each Boots Trainee Pharmacist in Scotland is at a higher level and Boots continues to pass on the fully funded amount as salary to those team members

Following the UK government's new pay offer to NHS consultants, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) wrote to the Health Secretary Victoria Atkins calling for fresh negotiations about nursing pay in England last week. However, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has rejected their demand, stating that there is no basis to reopen talks as the pay deal was accepted by the NHS Staff Council. In the previous pay deal, nurses were given a one-off payment between £1,655 and £3,789 for 2022/23, and a 5 per cent consolidated pay increase for the 2023/24 financial year. Nursingnotes quoted a DHSC spokesperson as saying: "We hugely value the hard work of NHS nurses and that is why we provided a 5 per cent pay rise. "We also provided two significant non-consolidated awards, which for nurses at the top of Band 5 was over £2,000, equivalent to an extra 6.1 per cent of their basic pay.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) Union says it will be reaching out to LloydsPharmacy soon over a better deal on salary increase after the majority of its members rejected a three per cent offer made by the company recently. Paul Day, director, PDA Union told Pharmacy Business: "The PDA Union will communicate the response of employed pharmacists to the company and seek further discussion to try and find an offer that will be acceptable to union members. "Both management and union representatives have a vested interest in working to find such a solution and that is the outcome we hope to achieve." After months of negotiation by the PDA Union, the company offered a three per cent increase in salaries from the 1.8 per cent in the earlier offer made by the company. "Through negotiation over last few months that was increased to 3.0 per cent, plus a long term incentive plan (LTIP). Though the LTIP potentially offers large bonuses, it isn't guaranteed. Therefore what we put to members was the confirmed offer of three per cent increase in salaries," said Paul.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has raised concerns over "a prominent pharmacist's call to create a sector 'blacklist' for locums regarding disputes over rates." A few contractors took it to the Twitter to share screenshots of the messages by locums demanding more pay, which led to the call for 'blacklisting' those locums. "The motivation regarding the current talk of creating a blacklist seems intrinsically tied to hourly rates. Although there are occasional and isolated anecdotal reports on social media of alleged incidents of locums seeking higher rates than already agreed, these are far outstripped by reports of pharmacy businesses unwilling to negotiate and who do not want to pay the necessary rate to engage a locum and instead have set capped or fixed rates," said the PDA. It added that all parties should honour agreements they enter into, including a pharmacy's commitment to the NHS that it will open at set times to provide pharmaceutical services to patients and the public.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has raised concerns over the impact that high medicine price rises are having on contractor. Recently, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has granted the final list of price concessions for December 2022. The latest additions bring the total number of concessionary prices granted for the month of December to 198, surpassing the previous record of 159 granted in September 2022. PSNC has heard from hundreds of community pharmacy contractors who are paying inflated prices for antibiotics used for the treatment of Strep A and who have rightly been concerned about the lack of certainty around the final reimbursement prices for these medicines. It added: "We welcomed the involvement of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to look into the pricing of antibiotics. But the number of reports we are getting from contractors about medicines price rises are just not acceptable and this goes far beyond the antibiotic crisis."

he Healthcare Distribution Association (HDA) and the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiation Committee (PSNC) have urged the NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to issue urgent communications requesting that all those involved in medicines supply do not hoard, stockpile or over-prescribe Strep A antibiotics. In a statement HDA said that the sudden spike in demand for antibiotics used for the treatment of Strep A has meant that there is not enough of these medicines in the supply chain currently to meet this increased demand. As a result, wholesalers are working extremely hard with manufacturers to increase the supply of antibiotics. It added: "As regards pricing, the prices charged to pharmacies by HDA wholesale distributors will directly reflect the increase in prices wholesalers are having to pay for these medicines from manufacturers at the moment, in order to be able to continue supplying these medicines to pharmacies. This will be the case until supply and demand are more in sync."

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has secured the right to negotiate and agree on proposed changes to the NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) terms and conditions for its members. This milestone follows an agreement with other NHS trade unions, enabling the PDA Union to join the NHS Staff Side. As part of this group, the PDA can now actively participate in the NHS National Joint Council, which oversees changes to AfC. Participation in the NHS Staff Side brings significant benefits for PDA members, especially those employed in the NHS under AfC. In addition to providing the PDA the right to negotiate and agree proposed changes to AfC, it empowers the trade union to advocate for pharmacists at the highest levels in the NHS, participate fully in the NHS Social Partnership Forum, and collaborate with other unions on critical issues such as NHS pay. It also gives PDA members the right to be represented at local trust level on matters handled by local staff sides.

Most people in Great Britain believe that new junior doctors, nurses and health care assistants are underpaid, senior doctors and matrons are paid about right, and NHS CEOs are paid too much, according to a new study. About half the people surveyed indicated that newly qualified junior doctors are paid too little, with this sentiment increasing to three in five (60 per cent) among Labour voters. The research conducted by the Policy Institute at King's College London, King's Business School, and Ipsos also showed that more people believe NHS staff overall were badly paid than well paid. Dr Nick Krachler, senior lecturer in Human Resource Management at King's Business School, said: "Our survey shows considerable alignment between public perception of NHS pay levels and the claims of trade unions and professional associations that pay levels - which are determined by government after consultation from a Pay Review Body - ​are unsatisfactory for frontline NHS roles." He highlighted the urgent need to address healthcare workers' economic wellbeing, hoping that the new government will consider it in its upcoming negotiations with junior doctors this week.

You work hard for your money, so you should make sure that when something terrible happens - like a car accident or a fire in your home - you're fully compensated. That's where insurance comes in. But sometimes, the premiums for good coverage can be expensive. So how do you get the best deal on insurance without compromising your peace of mind? It all starts with knowing how to haggle. Insurance companies are always looking for new customers and want to make as much profit as possible on each one. That means they're often willing to negotiate on price. But you have to know what to say and how to say it. Here are a few tips. DEFINE WHAT YOU WANT IN MIND The first step is to understand what you want from your insurance policy. What kind of coverage do you need? How much are you willing to pay? When you know the answers to these questions, it's easier to start negotiating with insurers. This precise information will also help you during the application process. Many insurance companies will ask you questions about your needs. The more specific you can be, the better your chance of getting a policy that meets your needs without breaking your budget.

The Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA) has reiterated its call for all pharmacists working at Boots to join the PDA Union to support the collective voice of the profession within the company. It said this would enable PDA to send direct communications to pharmacists working at Boots and keep them up to date with key matters impacting their work life. Currently, the association uses the company communication channels to cascade key information to the non-member pharmacists, however, it fears such measures can be disrupted by management. Besides, having more member pharmacists at Boots would strengthen their "negotiating power", PDA said.