Hospital pharmacist shortages mean missed targets
Demand for hospital pharmacists is up |
Seventy per cent of hospital pharmacies report that targets have been missed and services have been restricted because of continuing staff shortages, according to the results of an annual recruitment survey. Almost a third of junior pharmacy posts were either left vacant or filled by locums, say researchers.
However, although there were some staff shortages that were described
as “significant” there were 103 more full-time equivalent
pharmacists in the hospital sector between August 2002 and July 2003
than the previous 12 months, the survey revealed.
Nearly double the number of pharmacists moved to the hospital sector
than vice versa — 115 recruited from the community compared with
58 who moved in the opposite
direction.
The figures help quash rumours of a mass exodus from the secondary sector
to the community, says the report — the result of the national
hospital pharmacy staffing survey carried out by the NHS pharmacy education
and development committee.
Hospital pharmacists were, however,
attracted to the employment opportunities created in primary care with
1.6 per cent leaving hospital to take up posts with primary care organisations.
The percentage was higher than those moving into the community,
representing 1.2 per cent of the available workforce.
The number of newly registered pharmacists deciding to pursue a hospital
career has stayed roughly the same with 64 per cent who do hospital pre-registration
training staying in the hospital sector between August 2002 and July
2003 compared with 66 per cent in the previous 12 months.
The report concludes: “Fewer staff are leaving hospital for community
pharmacy than are moving the other way. The proportion of staff leaving
for primary care organisations is modest but includes an important number
of experienced pharmacists and technicians.”
Regional training pharmacist at Oxford Radcliffe Hospital and survey
co-ordinator David Scott said: “The demand for hospital pharmacists
is ever increasing and we are able to attract pharmacists to the hospital
service, although not in as great a number as we would like.” He
added: “There remains a gap between the posts we would like to
fill and the number of pharmacists available, but that is no greater
than in previous years.”
The survey, which has been carried out for the past seven years, was
based on recruitment figures from 226 of 249 hospital pharmacies in NHS
trusts in England, Scotland and Wales questioned, a response rate of
91 per cent. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal
Acrobat
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