New hospital pharmacist job profiles under Agenda for Change raise concern
Hospital pharmacists will vote on Agenda for Change in the first
half of next year |
The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists raised significant concerns this week about five job profiles it received from the Agenda for Change job evaluation working party.
Ron Pate, chairman of the GHP terms and conditions committee, told The
Journal: “Our concerns were predominantly about the process by
which the job profiles were prepared, which was not consistent with how
we believed job analysis would be taken forward within Agenda for Change.” In
particular, the GHP is concerned that the profiles have been produced
without going through the full job analysis process.
Mr Pate added: “Dave Miller, vice-chairman of the GHP terms and
conditions committee, and Tony West, vice-president of the GHP, have
worked particularly hard in examining the job profiles sent to us. We
believe all five job profiles were underscored and we have mounted a
robust objection to them.” The five job profiles are all clinical
pharmacist roles, varying in degree of seniority. “It should be
possible to match a majority of pharmacists’ jobs to these five
profiles,” said Mr Pate. A number of job profiles were being considered
by the job evaluation working party but only five of these have been
sent to the GHP for comment. Two job profiles that the GHP is still waiting
to receive are those for preregistration trainees and chief pharmacists.
“
Our comments will now be considered by the job evaluation working party
and either accepted or referred back to us. Ultimately we have to reach
an agreement by the end of December,” said Mr Pate. This is because
the deadline for agreement of national profiles that will be used within
the 12 early implementation sites of Agenda for Change is likely to be
31 December.
The GHP is also concerned that many hospital trusts have asked pharmacists
to provide updated job descriptions in preparation for roll-out of Agenda
for Change. Although the GHP is in favour of updating job descriptions,
it does not support early pursuit of Agenda for Change in sites that
are not early implementers. It recommends pharmacists do not use Agenda
for Change language in job descriptions but rather produce an outline
of everything that they are required to do.
A final ballot on roll-out of Agenda for Change is due in spring or summer
2004. |
