Pharmacy staff shortages viewed as 'short-term' issue, broker says
Community pharmacy’s staffing issues are perceived as short term rather than long term by brokerage clients, Christie & Co has told C+D.
Christie & Co’s clients feel that workforce pressures could be resolved “over the next year or so”, head of pharmacy Tony Evans told C+D yesterday (January 19).
“There's been quite a lot reported over recent months about pressures on pharmacy staffing, particularly with regards to qualified pharmacists and technicians,” Mr Evans said.
People are looking at how they can staff the pharmacies they have purchased, which has been difficult to achieve lately due to factors including “issues with COVID”, “the need to self-isolate”, pharmacists undertaking the ambitious booster vaccination programme, and many pharmacists migrating to primary care networks, Mr Evans said.
While the broker's clients are viewing this situation “carefully”, they feel this challenge is “probably more short-term than a long-term” issue, Mr Evans added.
Christie & Co published its business outlook 2022 report yesterday, in which it indicated that all of its specialist sectors – including pharmacy – have faced staffing issues and labour shortages in 2021, with pharmacy contractors also facing “significant increases in locum rates”.
A return to pre-pandemic activity
The pharmacy market performed “very well” in 2021, and Christie & Co hopes for a “mirror performance” in 2022, Mr Evans told C+D.
The pharmacy sector has risen in the estimation of the public in the past two years as a result of being “the only primary care sector that had its doors firmly open throughout the whole of the pandemic”, Mr Evans said, and “that has helped the market” and buoyed confidence in it.
Although “2020 was a challenging year for everybody” – pharmacy included – and numbers “were naturally down” due to successive lockdowns, key metrics such as “deal activity, viewings”, and “offers” suggest that “the market performed far stronger” in 2021, Mr Evans said.
“They are all up on par with where we were when we were coming into the pandemic” in early 2020, he continued, which is “incredibly encouraging”.
This bodes well for the year ahead, Mr Evans said.
“There are still plenty of people looking to acquire pharmacies [who] have the confidence to do so,” Mr Evans continued. “2021 was a really strong year for us and we expect 2022 to follow suit.”
145 pharmacy sales in 2021
Christie & Co also “did an excess of 145 pharmacy completions last year”, Mr Evans continued, “a significant amount of business over the course of what was effectively still a pandemic year”.
The number of first-time buyers also grew in 2021, and the sector has attracted investment due to it showing “long-term confidence”, Mr Evans added. Offers for pharmacies have returned “to pre-COVID times”, he said, as Christie & Co reported “an average of five offers per pharmacy sold” in 2021 – a 31% increase from 2020 and an 11% increase from 2019.
“I think what we've seen more recently over the last year is the return in confidence to the marketplace”, he told C+D, with “more existing independent operators and also multiple operators looking to acquire pharmacies”.
Christie Finance also provided funding in 45 pharmacy transactions over the year, according to the business report.
Online pharmacies “saw a definite uptick in activity”
Many pharmacies are seeking to expand their digital offering as they look at how they can “retain business and improve their patient journeys”, Mr Evans told C+D.
“Online pharmacies saw a definite uptick in activity over the course of the pandemic”, he continued, “certainly over the course of the first year” of the pandemic as the UK entered a series of “stringent lockdowns”.
Online pharmacies’ activity increased “twofold”, with principle online suppliers seeing “massive growth”.
Bricks-and-mortar pharmacies that offer a “hybrid model” – what the report terms “bricks and clicks” – will “be able to perform and compete very strongly” with the growing online pharmacy market, Mr Evans said, as online pharmacies still only make up a small percentage of “the overall dispensing that's undertaken”.