The government announced in May that it intends to implement a five-year degree by 2020, but CPS told C+D it is unable to support the plans without “further explanation of some significant areas of concern”.

These include how to achieve the government’s ambition of increasing the amount of “experiential learning” – currently offered to students as “goodwill” by Scottish pharmacies – without increasing overall funding for the pharmacy degree programme, CPS director of operations Matt Barclay told C+D this morning (July 26).

Mr Barclay also pointed to the government’s “ambitious timescales” for implementing the degree by 2020, “given the number of unknowns the [government’s] report contains”.

“For pharmacy owners to participate, the…standards expected would need to be clear from the outset,” he told C+D.

He stressed that the negotiator would be collaborating with the government and other stakeholders to “work through some of the concerns raised”.

“The universities have made their position clear and it is important to have them on board,” Mr Barclay added.

Universities raise “substantive issues”

Both Scottish pharmacy schools – the University of Strathclyde and Robert Gordon University – confirmed in a joint statement they cannot commit to the five-year programme “until a number of substantive issues are resolved”.

“We welcome further dialogue with the chief pharmacist and her team to address these issues,” the universities added.

Government setting up implementation groups

In response, the Scottish government told C+D: “We will be establishing a series of implementation groups – which the schools of pharmacy will be involved in – to consider recruitment and admissions, funding, programme development, and quality management and governance.”

NHS Education for Scotland told C+D that a five-year degree would be “an important part of preparing pharmacists for evolving practice and workforce demands”.

“We look forward to being involved in more detailed discussions of the implementation groups, which are being formed to take forward this initiative…from 2020 and beyond,” it added.