NHS England has backed a pilot scheme by Day Lewis to employ a second pharmacist in its branches.

The commissioning body's deputy chief pharmaceutical officer Bruce Warner said it would be "really interesting" to see how Day Lewis's decision to employ 10 pre-reg students as "special service pharmacists" would work out.

Mr Warner called for two pharmacists per pharmacy to become "the norm" to help change the sector's "flat" career structure, at the Pharmacy Management Conference yesterday (November 18).

An extra "junior grade" pharmacist should work alongside a more experienced colleague for a lower salary than new pharmacists currently receive, giving them the chance to "build their skills and potential" over time, Mr Warner told C+D. There would soon be an excess of pharmacists in England, which created an "opportunity to use pharmacists in innovative ways", he said.

"That may include putting in a second pharmacist and developing that career structure for them. [It] gives us space to pick up on a lot of the services that people are simply too pressured to do at the moment," he told C+D.

When asked how contractors would pay for a second pharmacist, Mr Warner said there "must be ways of making that happen". This could involve evaluating the current "skill mix" of pharmacy staff, he said.

Mr Warner said he worked as a second pharmacist in a community pharmacy once a month and it was a "great model".

Day Lewis picked 10 of the "cream" of its pre-reg students who had been unable to find a permanent position in its pilot scheme to employ service pharmacists, which launched in July, said managing director Kirit Patel. These pharmacists made a return of 140 per cent on the basic cost of taking them on, he told C+D on Tuesday.

Although travel and national insurance costs meant the scheme was not a "money-maker", Mr Patel said it was a good way to create new jobs and prove that a second pharmacist could bring value to a business.

Mr Patel said he "felt sorry" for pharmacy students who struggled to find work, and employing them as second pharmacists also took the pressure off staff struggling to deliver a full range of services. "It's unfair to stress our pharmacists out because there's only a certain amount of time in the day," he said.

Day Lewis had plans to take on a further 15 pre-reg students as second pharmacists next year and the scheme had attracted the attention of Portsmouth University, which was interested in evaluating it, Mr Patel added.

	Would you consider employing a second pharmacist?