The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7190 p385-391
23 March 2002

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Pharmacist numbers set to grow by 12 per cent in five years

The pharmacy workforce in the National Health Service and the private sector will have grown by 12 per cent over 1998 figures by next year, the Department of Health estimates.

In a Commons written answer on 7 March, John Hutton, Minister of State for Health, said that there had been a significant increase in the number of pharmacy students over recent years, with 27 per cent more students starting training in 2000 than in 1993. This pointed to a significant medium-term growth in the pharmacy workforce, despite the change to a four-year undergraduate course in 1997. The Department of Health's workforce modelling suggested a 12 per cent increase by 2003. The Department had regular contact with a range of organisations with an interest in pharmacy to discuss training issues.

Mr Hutton was replying to a question from Laurence Robertson (Con, Tewkesbury) asking what plans there were to increase the number of people training as pharmacists and what discussions with companies were being held about the training of pharmacists.