NHS England (NHSE) is “unlikely to meet its own target to expand the community pharmacy workforce” – with numbers projected to be some 47% below target - the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) has warned.
In a report published today (May 12), the body estimated that “there will be a shortfall of 16,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) pharmacists by 2036/37”, despite NHSE’s ambition to increase FTE community pharmacist numbers from 20,500 to “at least 34,000” by that year.
“On current trajectories, the workforce will be smaller in 2036/37 than it is today,” it said, noting that the number of pharmacists working in the community “has remained flat for several years”.
Read more: CCA: 540 years needed to meet NHS pharmacy workforce targets
The CCA found that the number of FTE community pharmacists is at its “lowest level” since data collection began in 2017.
It said that “without action, the number of pharmacists practicing in community pharmacy could be lower in 2036/37 than in 2021” – the year used as the baseline in NHSE’s target.
“More pharmacists are choosing to work part-time and in other settings,” it said, stressing that “without increasing the number of undergraduate pharmacy students, there will not be enough graduates to fill the expanded foundation training placements”.
“Downward spiral”
Despite the sector facing increasing “demands and expectations” – including the rise in NHS services and unfunded patient consultations – the “workforce is shrinking”, the CCA said.
It highlighted that although there has been “growth in the size of the GPhC register, we are not seeing a proportional increase in the number of pharmacists practising in the community in England”.
“Funding cuts, coupled with the growing demand on services, have created a downward spiral of increased pressure and workforce shortages,” it said.
Read more: Government rejects calls for ‘specific pharmacy workforce plan’
To combat these issues and “realise the ambitions” of NHSE’s workforce plan, the CCA has said that it must:
- “Halt the recruitment” of pharmacists into other parts of primary care, such as GP surgeries and primary care networks (PCNs) “immediately”
- “Make better use of the community pharmacy network” by commissioning patient care from pharmacies “near to where patients live”, rather than moving pharmacists “from one setting to another”
- Work with employers and higher education institutions to “increase the number of new pharmacists”
- Ensure that the upcoming workforce plan is accompanied by “a clear plan for implementation” and “ongoing dialogue” with the sector
“Little hope”
CCA chief executive Malcolm Harrison stressed that “the NHS must prioritise an enhanced community pharmacy workforce if it is to realise the government’s planned shifts to move more care into the community and focus on preventing illness rather than just treating it”.
The “community pharmacy workforce is shrinking [and] vacancy rates have risen”, he said, adding that “the number of pharmacists is at its lowest level in over eight years”.
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Harrison added that the new NHS workforce plan – due to be published this summer – gives the CCA “little hope” as there has been “virtually no progress since the last one”.
“Lurching from plan to plan without implementation, alongside continued underfunding, is doing harm to pharmacies who are the healthcare lifeblood of local communities,” he said.
It comes after the CCA revealed in October that “at current rates of growth, it will take almost 540 years” to meet NHSE’s target of recruiting “34,000 full-time incoming pharmacists” by 2036/37 – up from 20,500 in 2021/22.
