Of the 37 fitness-to-practise hearings of pharmacy technicians held by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) between 2012 and 2016, the PDA claimed that 27 (73%) were not attended by the registrant in question.

This compared with 22% of pharmacist hearings which were not attended by the registrant over the same period, the PDA said in a report published last Friday (September 7).

The organisation concluded that “statistically, pharmacists are significantly more likely to attend” their fitness-to-practice hearing.

The PDA attempted to explain this disparity by claiming that the “average annual salary for a community pharmacy technician appears to be comparable to that of a cleaner or housekeeper or that of a general service occupation, such as retail cashier, checkout operator and travel agent”.

For individuals on these salaries, the “ultimate sanction” of being expelled from the register “does not realistically represent anything like the ultimate sanction”.

The GPhC’s register of pharmacy technicians “must be underpinned by a suitably structured career framework for pharmacy technicians to support the roles of pharmacists, linked to pay banding at a significantly higher level than is currently the case in community pharmacy”, the PDA concluded.

Salaries of pharmacy technicians

Explaining its calculations for technicians’ average pay, the PDA referred to a report it commissioned by agency JRA Research, published in 2014, which found that 74% of community pharmacy technicians were paid less than £20,000.

“Online discussion” from 2017 suggested that rates “had not materially changed” since JRA Research’s report, claimed the PDA, which went on to cite examples of hourly rates ranging from £8.10 for a pharmacy technician to £10.10 for an accuracy checking technician.

C+D’s own survey of 96 full-time accuracy checking technicians and pharmacy technicians last year revealed an average salary of £21,875.

APTUK response

Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK president Tess Fenn told C+D yesterday that the PDA’s recommendations provided “interesting generalised commentary”, which it will consider when the PDA publishes its further promised reports on the profession later this year.

C+D has asked the GPhC to confirm the fitness-to-practise attendance figures cited by the PDA, and has asked the association to share its evidence of pharmacy technicians' salaries.