The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 264 No 7100 p866
June 10, 2000 News

Pharmacist shortages curtail services at half of Britain's hospitals

Half of the hospitals in Britain are unable to provide all their intended services because of shortages of pharmacy staff. That is the stark finding of the official 1999 survey hospital pharmacy vacancy survey conducted on behalf of the National Health Service Pharmacy Education and Development Committee. Only 10 of the 297 hospital pharmacy departments in Britain failed to return the survey questionnaires. Commenting on the findings of the survey for the committee, the author Dr David Scott (John Radcliffe infirmary, Oxford) told The Journal on June 6: "The problem is a continuing one: there is a genuine shortage of pharmacists. There are still members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Council who say that they are not sure that there is a shortage. The fact that half of all hospitals have had to refuse services in each of the past two years proves the point. It is clear that there is a marked shortage of hospital pharmacists. Department of Health figures which show that pharmacy has a higher proportion of registered persons in professional employment than have other health professions make it very difficult to argue that there is not a shortage of pharmacists."

Hospital vacancies exceed the number of preregistration trainees

Dr Scott said that the survey findings showed that people had made considerable efforts to try to overcome the shortage. Posts had been regraded, people were working longer hours and services had been restructured around the available staff, rather than according to the most desirable skill mix. A result of regrading had been that vacancies were now seen at higher levels.
The overall finding of the survey was that unfilled pharmacist posts amounted to 637 whole time equivalents or 14.7 per cent of all posts. These included 215 vacancies at grades A and B, 179 at grade C and 138 at grade D. This compares with fewer than 400 preregistration trainees currently in the hospital service. There were also 294 pharmacy technician vacancies.
The total number of pharmacist posts rose during 1999, but by more than the number of pharmacists employed. The net effect was that the number of vacancies rose by 54. The number of A to C grade posts fell by 92 during 1999 and the number of D to F grade posts rose by 181. A quarter of these changes involved the conversion of pharmacist posts to technician posts.
The survey report says that many hospital pharmacies now use technicians in managerial roles, particularly with regard to other technicians and training posts. Some extend this to management of pharmacists and dispensaries, aseptic and production units, purchasing, stores and information technology functions.