Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists calls again for recruitment and retention
premiums
The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists has once again called for recruitment
and retention premiums of up to £4,244 for hospital pharmacists.
The Guild requested a similar increase last year (PJ, 10 December 2005,
p711) but it was not awarded since data on recruitment at the new Agenda
for Change pay levels were unavailable (PJ, 8 April, p407).
The guild’s submission to the Review Body for Nursing and other
Health Professions recommends that recruitment and retention premiums,
equivalent to four incremental points, should be targeted at pharmacists
in bands 6 and 7 of the Agenda for Change scale.
The submission cites an exit survey of preregistration trainees in eight
NHS regions conducted by NHS Pharmacy Education and Development leads,
showing that most trainees leave the NHS for community pharmacy in order
to earn a higher salary and pay off their debts. The survey found that
starting salaries in the community were in excess of £30,000, with
10 per cent earning in excess of £41,000. The starting salary for
a hospital post is £22,886.
Nearly all of the 35 trainees surveyed expressed an expectation of returning
to hospital pharmacy.
Other factors that have affected recruitment and retention stated in
the submission include slow progression rates under AfC, withdrawal of
on-call payments for band 8 pharmacists and a reduction in recruitment
of hospital trainees for 2007 due to the current financial difficulties
within the NHS.
The ending of reciprocal registration arrangements between the Royal
Pharmaceutical Society and the equivalent organisations in Australia
and New Zealand has also created a lack of short-term locums.
“
Service modernisation, the key objective of the AfC process, will be
seriously affected by an inability to obtain sufficient trained and competent
staff,” the guild warns. |
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Pharmaceutical Journal
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