A joint letter signed by representatives from 14 pharmacy organisations has called for reassurance that the workforce plan, expected by April 2023, will cover the entirety of the pharmacy workforce across the health service, including in community pharmacy.
The letter notes that the Health and Social Care Committee in July 2022 called for a pharmacy workforce plan to help optimise workloads across primary care, reduce pressure on general practice and hospitals, and support integrated care systems.
The letter highlights that with continued pressures on services, it is more important than ever to support the pharmacy workforce so that the staff needed to deliver patient care now and into the future can be recruited, trained and retained.
The letter was co-signed by:
- Dr Leyla Hannbeck, Chief Executive, Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies
- Claire Steele, President, Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK
- Joseph Williams, Chair, British Oncology Pharmacy Association
- Priyanka Patel, President, British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
- Roz Gittins, President, College of Mental Health Pharmacy
- Malcolm Harrison, Chief Executive, Company Chemists’ Association
- Nathan Burley, President, Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists
- Mark Lyonette, Chief Executive, National Pharmacy Association
- Janet Morrison OBE, Chief Executive, Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee
- Mark Koziol, Chairman, Pharmacists’ Defence Association
- Prof Katie Maddock, Chair, Pharmacy Schools Council
- Dr Graham Stretch, President, Primary Care Pharmacy Association
- Thorrun Govind, English Pharmacy Board Chair, Royal Pharmaceutical Society
- Mohamed Rahman, Chair, UK Clinical Pharmacy Association
Mark Koziol, PDA Chairman said, “Our pharmacist members practise across the entire health system and have the potential to do far more to help patients and improve public health, but they can only do so safely if they are in appropriately staffed workplaces. This is a workforce issue, so it is important that the Government works with representatives of the pharmacist workforce, and of their employers, to get a suitably agreed plan in place.”
The joint letter can be viewed below.
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