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Letters to the Editor
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Agenda for Change
Inequity still exists around the UK
From Mr R. Clarey, MRPharmS
Agenda for Change is a Government-led policy to create a level playing
field in the pay structure of the NHS, by setting a national standard
of pay for people carrying out the same job. However, a structure that
has worked well in pharmacy for the past decade is now being turned upside
down by local trusts setting their own pay levels.
I have spoken to pharmacists in both primary and secondary care and it
appears that a number of people are finding that with their new pay band
their salary will be “protected” for the next two to three
years.
This means that they will not even receive an annual cost-of-living pay
increase (ie, every year their pay, relatively, will go down).
Although this is intended to be a national scheme with everybody receiving
the same pay for the same job, neighbouring primary care trusts and trusts
are awarding staff a different “score” and, as a result,
their achieved pay band may be one or two bands either side of that of
the person carrying out the same role in the next trust.
I am aware of Whitley scale Grade E pharmacists being graded from a level
6 through to a level 8b. Those at the top of this scale may experience
a pay rise, while those at the bottom have effectively been demoted and,
as such, feel demoralised and are threatening to leave their posts.
Due to the inequity of the new scheme, there will be “black
holes” within the NHS where pharmacists will not want to work due
to low A4C banding in their region and higher banded posts being available
elsewhere in the country.
This is not just happening to pharmacists; I am also aware of pharmacy
technical staff in NHS trusts who are being graded together. There are
instances of medical technical officer (MTO) 2 and MTO 3 staff being
graded to the same band. In one trust this is comparable to a downgrading
of the MTO 3, while in others it corresponds to a promotion for the MTO
2. With such a set-up, why would an MTO 3 wish to continue to carry on
managing a department when their MTO 2 colleagues, whom they possibly
trained, manage and appraise, will be earning as much as them while they
have no opportunity to increase their own MTO 3 salaries?
With all of this going on and the PCTs and hospital trusts being reconfigured,
morale in the NHS is starting to fall.
I would urge the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to carry out an inquiry
into the pay of primary and secondary care pharmacists to establish the
inequity across the country. There is the possibility of the situation
of the early 1980s being repeated, when the pay and conditions between
the retail and NHS sectors led to a staff shortage in the NHS.
Richard Clarey
High Peak, Derbyshire
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal