The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7412 p153
5 August 2006

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Vacant posts for pharmacists in NHS fall during 2005–06

Vacant posts for pharmacists and other qualified pharmacy staff in NHS trusts in England have fallen over the past year.

New figures from The Information Centre (an NHS special health authority) show that from March 2005 to March 2006 the number of vacancies for pharmacists that trusts have been actively trying to fill for three months or more fell from 170 to 120. Three-month vacancy rates (ie, three-month vacancies expressed as a percentage of three-month vacancies plus staff in post from the previous September workforce censuses) thus fell from 3.2 per cent to 2.1 per cent.

Vacancies for other qualified pharmacy staff fell from 90 (1.6 per cent vacancy rate) to 70 (1.3 per cent). These figures reflect a general fall in vacancies across the NHS.

The number of pre-registration trainee vacancies remained the same at 20 places, although proportionally this represents an overall increase (from 2.3 per cent to 2.9 per cent).