The Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) has urged its members to persuade the government to reverse its rejection of a pharmacy student numbers cap.

PDA officials had been in touch with “key members” of parliament to discuss the issue over the past two months, and the organisation wanted its own members to “add further pressure” by lobbying their MPs, it said yesterday (January 6).

It referred to a statement by minister for universities, science and cities Greg Clark MP last month (December 8), in which he defended his decision to reject a cap by pointing out that pharmacy courses were funded in the same way as science subjects, which were not subject to a cap.

In response to a question from Labour MP Roger Godsiff on why the cap on dental and medical students had not been extended to pharmacy, Mr Clark said these subjects attracted a “much larger amount of funding” from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

A joint consultation last year by HEFCE and Health Education England found that most respondents favoured some form of limit on pharmacy student numbers, and the PDA said there were “many arguments” for a cap that its members could bring to their MP’s attention.

“We believe MPs are currently in a very receptive mode as 2015 sees most of them involved in defending their seats at the next general election,” it said.
 

A mistaken premise

The PDA suggested a range of arguments that its members could use to persuade their MP about the benefits of a cap, such as highlighting that pharmacy was a “healthcare discipline” and Mr Clark’s comparison with science subjects was a “mistaken premise”.

Mr Clark also did not appear to have taken account of the “significant amount” of government funding allocated to pharmacists in their pre-registration year, it said.

Training a surplus of graduates would be a “gratuitous waste of tax payers’ money”, the PDA said. Even if Mr Clark reversed his decision, there was already a “considerable number” of undergraduates undergoing training who would “flood” the market over the next five years, it stressed.

The PDA asked its members to inform it of their successes locally, which would help the organisation coordinate its “central activities”.
 

Will you be lobbying your MP for a cap on student numbers?

 

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