Exclusive: Letter reveals locum rate drops at Co-operative Pharmacy

Pay peanuts, get monkeys!

Simple economics - 1000 more graduates per year and 2% off the gross margin. That said I agree with the comment pay peanuts get monkeys posted before.

Locum rates have been pegged at £25/hr for over a decade.....it is ridiculous to think that with the cost of living going up and more and more work demanded of locums companies are cutting hourly rates.....locums should have some guts and boycott companies that do this.... then lets' see how they can run their pharmacies without locums

From some of the stories i hear whilst out and about, some locums don't even deserve to be paid half this amount. The solution, train and pay technicians better in community and we can lose the vast majority of pharmacists in community full stop.
That is unless they start doing a lot more to prove their worth to healthcare other than handing out bags of medicines.

I expect my locums to "go the extra mile" and be involved, rather than just standing there checking scripts plus I have a lot of FP10 MDA patients BUT.... I pay £35 per hour to my locums (all of whom can hack it) and don't begrudge a penny. Reliability, top quality checking and no "mess" to sort out the next day are worth rewarding. Top notch dispensary staff helps as well!

In all fairness this was always going to happen more Students v. same pharmacy number, locums will not boycott thes pharmacies, because other groups will follow.

Its exactly why the RPSGB should never have incorporated technicians- which profession would actively offer protection and support for a potential competitor?

Ridiculous

NNkechi, are you scared technicians will replace you?

With ever increasing workloads and reduced staffing levels it makes you wonder where the profession is heading...

Mr. Adams, that is the typical answer I would expect from a Non healthcare professional. You cannot replace Pharmacists with technicains. Accuracy checking a prescription is not the only factor to consider. The important factor it is the CLINICAL CHECK! I appeciate some of the locums you have met/heard about are not worth having in a pharmacy but the majority are sound professionals. To prove their worth they have to be given the oppotunity by the dispensary staff & checking technians working together as part of "skill mix". The core idea being to free up the pharmacists time to pursue advanced services.

Adam you sound like a non-pharmacy manager in a large multiple......I have an even better solution get rid of technicians and dispensers and install dispensing robots at least robots don't need training......
Also will like to draw your attention to the comment by Graham Morris

Mr Kasaven, a typical pharmacist response. Pharmacist with a CAPITAL P and technician with lower case t, implying pharmacists are better or was it just a freudian slip. In response to your reply I was merely stating that the clinical check most pharmacists in community perform could be adequately undertaken by a suitably trainied technician. Not trained as they are now but more in-depth and further training.

Anthony, well said! I would love to be able to boycott companies offering lower rates, but not really possible when you have a mortagage, wife & 2 kids!!! These new graduates from new schools of pharmacy have really tilted the balance of the pharmacy profession. We will become what we have always feared "Glorified shopkeepers"

Mr Adams. I can assure you that was just a typo error! As are all the other spelling errors in my post (sorry at work at the moment) That is probably true, but you say 'MOST' clinical checks. What happens if you get an interaction that the Technicians can't process. Do you send the the patient away?? By the time you train Technicians about all the interactions they need to know and then with their accuracy checking courses etc. They may have well as done the MPharm degree at university.

This is exactly why we should have a professional body for pharmacists only as we will soon have the tail wagging the dog. We do not want to go down the line of being like dispensing doctors where there is no supervision.

Its up to the older pharmacists to educate the younger once that accepting a lower hourly rate is not the best option.....because the young shall one day not be the young again ie when new sets qualify....
On the subject of boycotting.....its just for one day in a week .....and I can tell you it works..every locum in the area cancels a shift on one chosen day and see what happens

we actually need a PHARMACIST UNION!!!

Mr Kasaven, why would extra graduates tilt the balance to the point where the profession becomes "Glorified shopkeepers". Surely a larger pool of pharmacists will improve the quality because you do not have to rely on poorly performing pharmacists who do nothing more stick labels on boxes or sit in the back reading the newspaper, i.e. Glorified shopkeepers. These people would either a) have to improve their game or 2) leave the profession and try something different to earn a living. All in all a win win situation.
As for most clinical checks i hope this goes beyond simple interaction and overdose checking because I beleive you do not have to learn all the interactions, simply know the basic concepts and then check the reference sources so see the management. Something you could train a technician to do and for those which require a little more thought, phone a pharmacist in say the PCT or hospital for guidance.

Sometimes Dorothy, pharmacists are their own worst enemies

Excellent Anthony, highly professional!! You do need a PHARMACIST UNION so that this kind of behaviour does not happen and is talked about and negotiated properly and patient care not compromised for the sake of losing £8 a day. Or is that not important in the grand scheme of things?

Do you have a profession???