NHSE has announced that there will be a 29% increase in pharmacist training places by 2028/2029, according to the NHS long term workforce plan released today (June 30).

The workforce plan sets out to boost the number of pharmacist training places to 4,307 by 2028, a 29% increase from the 3,339 training places available for trainee pharmacists in 2022.

By 2031, the number of training places available is planned to be 4,970, it said.

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It added that the number of pharmacy technicians “will also grow in future years”.

The long-awaited long term workforce plan details plans to increase the number of medical professionals across the UK over the next 15 years in response to “demographic change” that forecasts predict will create a “shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 [NHS] staff by 2036/37”.

To combat this shortfall, the government plans to spend £2.4 billion to expand training places across NHS roles by 27% by 2028/29, the plan said.

Ambition to increase places by 50%

The document said that education and training places for pharmacists “are estimated to need to grow by 31–55% to meet the demand for pharmacy services, reaching 4,359–5,174 by 2032/33”.

It set out “an ambition to increase training places for pharmacists by nearly 50% to around 5,000 places by 2031/32”.

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“To support this level of growth, we will expand training places for pharmacists by 29% to around 4,300 by 2028/29, starting with initial growth in 2026/27 when places will increase by 15%”, it said.

And it added that NHSE will “continue to grow the pharmacy technician workforce to ensure expansion of this professional group to support growth and transformation across the pharmacy workforce”.

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