Job profiles for hospital pharmacists are published
Cautious optimism over new pay deal |
National profiles for five hospital pharmacist roles under “Agenda for change” were published this week. It is expected that the majority of pharmacists’ jobs will be able to be matched to these five profiles.
Ron Pate, chairman of the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists terms and conditions
committee, told The Journal: “I am cautiously optimistic that this
is a good step forward for pharmacists.”
The job profiles that have been agreed are: post-registration pharmacist,
clinical pharmacist, specialist clinical pharmacist, highly specialist
clinical pharmacist and principal clinical pharmacist/clinical pharmacy
services manager. The guild says that posts in primary care, technical
services, medicines information and mental health can be matched to these
profiles.
Although the profiles have been agreed by the guild, it has some concerns.
Mr Pate comments: “A number of significant issues remain unresolved.
We need to test the profiles in the job matching process in the early
implementer sites. This will identify the degree of success we have achieved
and, almost certainly, areas that need further work.”
In particular, he highlighted the areas of unsocial hours and on-call
pay. “As with many other professional groups, the reimbursement
is likely to be significantly below other national and local agreements
being
replaced including the emergency duty commitment allowance,” he
said. Another area
of concern is recruitment and retention
premiums.
Full descriptions of the job profiles, including job statements and detailed
job information, can be found here.
Post-registration pharmacists are described as being part of a structured
rotational training programme while the clinical pharmacist role includes
provision of clinical pharmacy services and supervision of staff.
The specialist clinical pharmacist’s job description includes delivering
a clinical pharmacy service to a clinical area, and teaching and supervision
of other pharmacists, technicians and students. The role of the highly
specialist clinical pharmacist includes responsibility for leading and
delivering specialist pharmacy services to a directorate as well as providing
expert advice and undertaking
research. The role of the principal clinical pharmacist/clinical pharmacy
services manager is to deliver, manage and develop clinical pharmacy
services to the trust.
The next step is for the early implementer sites to test the job profiles.
A final ballot on the full roll out is expected in the spring or summer.
Pay bands for the five hospital pharmacist job profiles
|
Job profile |
Band |
Pay scale |
Post-registration pharmacist |
Band 6 |
£20,955–£28,387
(transitional pay* from £18,322) |
Clinical pharmacist |
Band 6 |
£20,955–£28,387
(transitional pay* from £18,322) |
Specialist clinical pharmacist |
Band 7 |
£25,290–£33,342
(transitional pay* from £21,368) |
Highly specialist clinical pharmacist
|
Band 8a/b |
a £32,258–£38,709
(transitional pay* from £29,213)
b £37,574–£46,451 (transitional pay* from £33,342) |
Principal clinical pharmacist/clinical
pharmacy services manager |
Band 8b/c |
b £37,574–£46,451
(transitional pay* from £33,342)
c £45,213–£55,742 (transitional
pay* from £38,709) |
|
*If a pharmacist’s current pay level falls well below
the allocated pay scale, salary will be initiated on the transitional
scale and be increased over a couple of years until it reaches
the
band level.
|
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