The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 263 No 7072 p806
November 20, 1999 News

Hospital pharmacy pay rises by between 3 and 12 per cent

Pay rises of between 3 per cent and 12 per cent, dependent on grade, have been accepted by hospital pharmacists. The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists announced on November 12 that it had decided to accept the Pharmaceutical Whitley Council (PWC) management side's final offer. So far as salaries are concerned, the increases are: preregistration trainees and grade A and B pharmacists, 12 per cent; grade C, 8 per cent; grade D, 5 per cent; and grade E and above, 3 per cent. In addition, London weighting is to be increased by 13.5 per cent. Because the increase means that there will no longer be equal increments all they way up the pay spine, there is to be a new way of calculating the extra pay due to pharmacists who make themselves available for emergency duties. So that the additional pay is the same for all grades, emergency duty pay has been set at two increments on the December, 1998, pay scale plus 12 per cent. This amounts to about £2,052 and will be superannuable. The guild says that the increases are backdated to April and should be seen in December pay packets.

Junior grades are to get four times the increase of senior grades

In addition to the pay agreement, the management and staff sides are to issue a joint statement on study leave. This was not available as The Journal went to press, but is expected to state the importance of study leave being available to hospital pharmacists.
It has also been confirmed that pharmacists working for the National Health Service are to be included in the plans to extend the remit of the pay review bodies set out by the Government in its recent White paper on modernising the NHS pay system (PJ, February 20, p240). In addition, the hospital pharmacist grading structure has been referred for further discussion by a joint management and staff side working party.
Mr Ron Pate (chairman, PWC staff side) told The Journal that he was disappointed that the management side had refused to adopt a consistent approach to pay increases for all hospital pharmacists. Nevertheless, the total increase was equivalent to the best offer to anyone currently covered by the pay review bodies.
The award would do little to resolve the pharmacists recruitment difficulties that hospitals were currently experiencing, Mr Pate said, but a start had been made on improving base-line salaries. The staff side would seek to redress the erosion of differentials between the grades in future negotiations.
Commenting on the expected study leave statement, Mr Pate said that he was pleased that a statement in keeping with those made for other NHS staff was finally to be issued. The statement would recognise the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's expectation that pharmacists should keep up-to-date through continuing education.