The pharmacist workforce crisis is exclusively in the community sector. The situation was bad enough before Covid but since then something else happened, says Terry Maguire…

Hopefully, no close family members will die in the next few months. If they do, I hope they will understand that I will be unable to attend their funeral service such is the absence of locum cover. I’ve never seen it so bad.

The problem is forcing pharmacies to reduce opening hours as contractors seek, for example, to close on Saturday. Most closure requests are granted, yet some are refused on the grounds of public need, leaving business owners in a difficult position.

The situation was bad enough before Covid but since then something else happened. The current workforce crisis is not down to the number of pharmacists on the PSNI register. It’s much more complex and subtle than that, it’s something else entirely.

There has been a 30 per cent increase in registered pharmacists in Northern Ireland between 2009 and 2020, yet according to a workforce review from the Department of Health last year, there will be a shortfall of 500-800 pharmacists by 2024 unless something is done to attract more into the profession. But these latter figures are based on a workforce that is culturally very different to the one in harness when I first practiced.

While 70 per cent of pharmacists on the register are female, they only make up 40 per cent of those in full-time employment. I know, in making that comment, I risk being labelled sexist. But rather than ignore this reality, we need to accommodate it as a fact of modern life and support all pharmacists in choosing the work-life balance that best suits them.

The workforce problem is exclusively in the community sector. Many have left the sector to take up posts in hospital and primary care where job satisfaction and the work-life balance are viewed as better. A good number move south to the Republic of Ireland where wages are seen to be more generous.

With CPD an annual requirement, many senior colleagues just choose to come off the register, while some of working age are just so fed up they simply hang up the white coat, saying the job just is not worth the hassle.

The DoH workforce survey gives a timely insight into the “something else,” the real problems of recruitment and retention of pharmacists in the community sector. It finds that employees are not a happy lot: 78 per cent feel so overwhelmed by patient expectations that they cannot get involved in more rewarding roles.

It’s not surprising, then, that most feel their skills are underutilised and their role unappreciated. They report being stressed and bored. For me one troubling fact stands out. Asked if they were to start their careers over again only 23 per cent said they would choose pharmacy. This is a powerful indictment of the negative employment environment that is community pharmacy in Northern Ireland in 2022

Morale had been shattered before the lockdown but now, coming out of the Covid pandemic, the workforce is becoming more assertive. They are dictating what will and will not be done in our pharmacies and, with many more outlets for their skills, they find it much easier to walk if they don’t like how they are being treated.

In addition, a move to more professionally rewarding roles is hampered by a regulator that has them shaking in their boots should the slightest dispensing error be blamed on them. Too much time is allocated to the assembly and checking of prescriptions and too little to the development of new ways of working. It seems if we cannot solve this conundrum community pharmacy will remain in a difficult place.

So, what should be done? A DoH consultation has just been completed on the registration and regulation of pharmacy technicians in Northern Ireland. Physical prescription assembly and checking should be for this sector of the workforce when it is eventually professionally recognised - and this should be as soon as possible. We also need to make greater use of ICT and robotics.

Perhaps then we will be able to attract to the sector those highly educated, energetic and talented young pharmacists who should be the lifeblood and the future of our profession. Working in community pharmacy should mostly be rewarding. It should never be a bore. It cannot ever be a drag. Contractors need to understand it’s not only about the money.

I’ve checked, and I’m delighted to confirm the good health of all my close relatives, so I can relax as I should not need a locum for the next few months.

Terry Maguire is a leading community pharmacist in Northern Ireland.