The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7238 p313
1 March 2003

Society summary

Society publishes headline results from its pharmacy workforce census

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has published a summary of the results of the census of members conducted between September and December 2002.

Among the findings is that 36 per cent of pharmacists who work in community practice describe themselves as locums. Only 18 per cent of community pharmacists are owner pharmacists, although 31 per cent of jobs in community pharmacy are in independent pharmacies.

More than a fifth of the census respondents (21 per cent) identify themselves as being from minority ethnic groups.

One pharmacist in five either does not work at all or works outside pharmacy. Of those who do work in pharmacy, 11 per cent exceed the maximum working hours set out in the European Union working time directive.

The census also found that, although women now make up just over half the register overall, they account for as much as 63 per cent of the register in Scotland but remain in the minority in Wales.

The summary report is available to download from the practice research section of the Society's website. A version also appears in The Pharmaceutical Journal (PDF 50K) this week (see p314).

The Society's practice research division commissioned the census to provide information that could be used to describe the current workforce and to analyse trends to inform future planning in subsequent years. The census will be used to provide the foundation for future work at the Society in both professional and regulatory areas.

Gill Hawksworth, the Society's Vice-President, said: "The nature of professional practice in pharmacy is changing rapidly, as are the patterns of work and the careers of many pharmacists. In the light of this, there is a growing need to understand this increasingly complex and dynamic workforce in order to plan effectively for the future of the profession. These data are extremely valuable and timely in the current policy context. The Society will be using them to support developments in CPD and workforce planning in the first instance."