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100-hour applications more than double in a year

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I'm probably the only one but I'm getting sick and tired of hearing Ms Sharpe go on and on (and on...) week-in week-out about how everyone other than her is so selfish and how they are a disease to the profession but she is a shining beacon of light. Different people are different Ms Sharpe. Your ideals and goals are not the same as those of other people. You criticise others as if they have violated some agreement which they entered into at some point in the past. THEY NEVER AGREED TO YOUR IDEALS IN THE FIRST PLACE! So please stop criticising everybody else as if they are 'oath-breakers' and traitors to the profession.

I'm sorry to say this Ms Sharpe, but people have a right to earn to feed their families and to attempt to improve their quality of life. For some people working for a large multiple is a depressing and stressful life and they simply want to be free from that. That is the end of the matter - no other argument can be more compelling than this. If people are stressed as a direct result of their workplaces, they are allowed to change their circumstances to provide a better life for themselves and their families. Seriously Ms Sharpe, that's just common sense.

I hate to point this out but you, Ms Sharpe, are almost retired. You have stake in this whole process because you want to leave a legacy. You DO NOT care what happens to the individual pharmacist, you simply want to raise the profile of 'the profession' (which would be your legacy). This is exactly why we, the individual pharmacists, DO NOT like the people at the top. It is a natural reaction where we begin to detest those shamelessly inconsiderate people who make our lives a misery. And worse, they do not have to face the increase in workload and stress which their own decisions have brought about since they rarely work as pharmacists anymore - that part really stings.

For the record, I do not own my own pharmacy but I respect other people's choices in this regard. At the very least, if you are so narrow minded and selfish that you cannot see why people are opening their own pharmacies, at least for the love of God just learn to respect individual choice, woman!
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100-hour applications more than double in a year
Answer
01/12/11 16:45as a reply to Middle Way.
Being an independant for 25 years it is very distressing to see 100 hour pharmacies being granted contracts to open irrespective of whether there is any need within the area. It gives an open playing field to those who can afford to set it up with no regard for existing pharmacies who have worked hard to set up successful businesses just to see their lives going down the tubes. I am all for competition but not manipulation.
We are all trying to claw back our lost income due to Category M cuts in the way of services which is stressful enough but then to worry about 100 hour pharmacies is enough to put anyone off with regards to carrying on practising as responsible pharmacists.
100-hour applications more than double in a year
Answer
02/12/11 10:26as a reply to Middle Way.
this debate has been rambling on for too long 20 years + nothing has been done contractors are no longer pharmacists they contractors are over represented at national negotiatons and it is there agenda always represented not the grass roots pharmacists.The national leaders assume pharmacists are naive at best that is why there are exploited by contractors i for one would back a campaign Back to Basics -Dispensing/counselling role we have always had as our own.Not the tick box ,paper shredding ,files bigger than the coffee machine role handed to us by our supposed representatives.
100-hour applications more than double in a year
Answer
02/12/11 14:35as a reply to Middle Way.
I suppose that is the free maket and there will be winners and losers. It may mean more job opportunities for pharmacists in the short to medium term and most of the 100 hour contracts are independents particularly younger pharmacists.

One enterprising co-owner duo do 50 hours to cover their own store and have a full time job on top locuming and one as relief for a multiple. So I suppose the situation is more complex than on first assessment.

Indeed, this may be the only feasible low cost entry opportunity many young entrpreneureal pharmacists get to own their own pharmacy. Whoever you all are...Good luck!
100-hour applications more than double in a year
Answer
02/12/11 15:48as a reply to Middle Way.
My point was essentially that if people want to open pharmacies then it is their personal choice in doing so. They are not breaking the law, they are working within the permissible framework which was defined by the very people who now criticise them for doing so. Existing independents have a hard time competing with these new pharmacies but once upon a time these same independents provided competition for other pharmacies which existed before they did. The wheel of time turns, the 'aggressor' becomes the 'victim', and so forth - this is the natural balance playing itself out. Did we think the business world was such an easy thing that we could take other people's customers but nobody would ever come to take ours?
100-hour applications more than double in a year
Answer
02/12/11 14:41as a reply to Middle Way.
Hi Uzumaki, your comment was removed because it was libelous and made personal attacks.
I could see that it was heartfelt and genuine and I was planning to contact you this afternoon to explain this and ask if you wanted to supply a new comment that avoided these attacks.

Unfortunately, you have preempted my email.

Regards
Niall Hunt
Digital Content Editor
100-hour applications more than double in a year
Answer
09/03/12 16:02as a reply to Middle Way.
93.8 per cent of the applications made in 2010-11 were granted, hence approx 24 were not

Does anyone know of the 6.2% of 100 hour contracts that were not granted and for what reason?