Hospital pharmacy vacancy rate falls slightly but remains high
Six per cent of hospital pharmacy posts in England had been vacant for at least three months in March 2003, according to figures from the Department of Health. The vacancy rate had fallen from 6.6 per cent
in 2002 but the number of vacancies had increased by six to 286 whole-time
equivalents (WTEs).
The annual survey of National Health Service vacancies reveals wide variations
in unfilled posts across England. The highest vacancy rate was 16.6 per
cent in the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Strategic Health Authority
area (21 WTEs). The lowest was 0.8 per cent (2 WTEs) in West Yorkshire.For
pharmacy technicians, the overall picture was similar. The vacancy rate
fell slightly to 2.6 per cent but the number of vacant posts rose from
120 WTEs to 131. The highest vacancy rate was 10.4 per cent in North
Central London.
In 2003, nine preregistration trainee posts were unfilled compared with
10 the previous year.
Helen Remington, chief pharmacist at Addenbrooke’s NHS Trust, commented: “The
published new vacancy figures indicate that little progress has been
made on vacancies. Everything must be done to ensure that this position
improves over the next few years. New schools of pharmacy will provide
additional pharmacists, but not yet.
“The immediate target is to ensure salaries attract staff to the
service. The NHS is already paying high costs for locum staff to fill
the vacancies
and the logic is inescapable — recruit permanent staff at an economic
rate and reduce the expensive use of temporary staff.”
Mrs Remington said that the vacancy rate put pressure on existing work
and jeopardised the expansion of pharmacists’ work into new areas,
such as improving antibiotic prescribing and pharmacist prescribing,
which would improve patient services.
Welsh vacancies The three-month
vacancy rate for hospital pharmacist posts in Wales fell by more
than half in 2003. At the end of March,
there was a 2.4 per cent vacancy rate (8 WTEs) compared with 4.9 per
cent (17.3
WTEs) the year before. |
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