Head of training and professional standards at pharmacy chain Imaan Healthcare Khalid Khan has wondered how some pharmacists “got through” their training, he revealed at the Pharmacy Show in Birmingham this week (October 13).
He made the comments while speaking at a keynote talk on NHS England’s (NHSE) reformed foundation trainee pharmacist programme.
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“I think if we’re really honest, those of us who have employed pharmacists in the past - I might get in trouble for this [or] might get a C+D headline - we’ve worked [with] or employed pharmacists and we think, ‘how have they got through?’” Khan said.
“Someone has signed this person off at some point and maybe they shouldn’t have,” he added.
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The first students to graduate against the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) revised pharmacist education and training standards, published in 2021, began their foundation training year - previously named the pre-reg year - in July 2025.
Khan said that the reformed foundation training programme provides “more scrutiny” of trainee pharmacists “in terms of the level a person needs to demonstrate to be able to get through” the fifth and final year of their education.
“I’m not saying we won’t have pharmacists that we regret employing, that will probably still happen - but in terms of the structure it provides…I think it brings [us] in line with some of the other professions,” he added.
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It comes after NHSE announced that funding for each site employing a foundation trainee pharmacist starting in the 2025/26 summer and autumn start windows will increase to £27,295 per trainee.
Community Pharmacy England (CPE) last week revealed that the increased payments for the 2025/26 training year will be made “automatically” to all eligible training sites and will include “back-dated payments to the start date of the trainee pharmacist”.
This means that there is “nothing additional” training sites need to do to receive the “uplifted payment”, it added.
