The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7384 p72
21 January 2006

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· Vitamin D and Cancer
· Animals in testing
· Out-of-hours services
· Medicines use reviews
· Prescribing
· NEL LPC
· Pharmacy workforce
· Overseas pharmacists
· Statutory Committee

Letters to the Editor

Out-of-hours services

Unsatisfactory remuneration

From Mr C. R. Cleverly, MRPharmS

I received a telephone call from my local primary care trust pharmacist member sounding me out for my willingness to take part in an out-of-hours service. The remuneration mentioned was around £240 for a week. I estimate that the hours involved would be around 100, giving a fee rate of around £2.50 an hour (of which in excess of £1 would be immediately clawed back in the form of taxation and national insurance). So we are expected to give up our entire after-hours social life for the princely sum of £1.50 an hour?

Payment on this scale is adding insult to the injury to which this profession has been subjected by the NHS progressively over the past 20 years. The NHS knows that as a profession we are devoid of political fire-power, divided and spinelessly led, and that we can thus be put upon to subsidise the provision of yet more clerks whose pension provision will beggar the rest of the nation for decades.

I would regard £5 per hour between 8pm and 8am on weekdays as the absolute minimum, rising to £10 between 8pm on Saturdays through to 8am on Monday mornings.
We should reject totally the sort of remuneration suggested — whatever our views of the EU it does at least confer some sort of human rights upon us, and the NHS cannot force us to provide this service.

Roger Cleverly
Sherborne, Dorset

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