| Latest NHSE workforce survey suggests drop in community pharmacists ... t, and a 18% decrease in pharmacy technician headcount and full-time equivalent. But the number of community pharmacy trainees for both professions increased, by 302 foundation pharmacists and 296 pre-registration pharmacy technicians. Last year also saw an increase in the total the number of full-time equivalent accuracy checkers, trained dispensing assistants, trained medicines counter assistants and phar ... Date: 03-10-2024 Categories: • Community • News |
| Pharmacy crises highlighted in 'honest' NHS review ... FTE locum pharmacists, with figures indicating that locum pharmacists were working fewer hours on average. The NHS figures it highlighted also suggested that numbers of foundation pharmacists and pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians had also declined in recent years. The RPS submission said that with the workforce under continued pressure, and as pharmacists were being asked to do more, this must ... Date: 19-08-2024 Categories: • Community • News |
| Support DPPs with protected learning time, RPS urges ... has urged. This comes as the RPS and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) have together published a roundtable report discussing the barriers and solutions to providing prescribing training for pre-registration pharmacists. In a position statement, the RPS said that clearly defining the role of the DPP was ‘essential’ to ensure enough time was allocated to realistically undertake the role. And it stre ... Date: 12-08-2024 Categories: • Community • News |
| Pre-reg trainees will be supported by ‘communities of practice’, promises NHSE ... nee) NHS England will be able to pair you with foundation training programmes that require DPP supervision,’ the NHSE said in a newsletter today. In addition to clinical ‘communities of practice’, pre-registration trainees will also be able to access ‘a series of facilitated local learning sets’ for groups of trainees throughout their foundation training. ‘The content of the training offer will include supp ... Date: 12-06-2024 Categories: • Community • In Practice • News |
| NHSE urged to provide full list of available DPPs ... y training placements are required to offer students access to 90 hours of training with a DPP for the foundation year 2025/26 onwards, so that they can complete the prescribing requirements of their pre-registration training. All training placements should also be offered through the NHS's recruitment site ORIEL. But the CCA raised concerns that community pharmacies would be unable to secure DPPs. ‘This wi ... Date: 23-05-2024 Categories: • Community • News |
| GP pharmacists in Wales to get structured induction programme ... The commitment came as part of the Welsh Government’s Strategic Workforce Plan for Primary Care for 2024/25-2029/30, published last week. The plan also committed HEIW to increase the number of pre-registration training placements for pharmacists in primary care and establish a task and finish group to focus on primary care retention issues. And following the ‘success’ of multi-sector training foundation ... Date: 21-05-2024 Categories: • In Practice • News |
| ARRS funding can be used to fund DPPs ... g can be used to either train an ARRS pharmacist to become a DPP or to spend time as a DPP and that further guidance will be published next week. In addition, the route could also be used to appoint pre-registration pharmacy technician trainees via an apprenticeship, she said. And it could be used to fund educational supervisors for pharmacy technicians, NHSE senior professional advisor for pharmacy technician ... Date: 10-05-2024 Categories: • In Practice • News |
| Deputy CPhO: NHSE could consider employing trainee pharmacists NHS England (NHSE) could consider employing pre-registration pharmacists, the deputy chief pharmaceutical officer (CPhO) for England has suggested. At the Clinical Pharmacy Congress (CPC) today, Richard Cattell said he was thinking about ways to bring the p ... Date: 10-05-2024 Categories: • Community • In Practice • News |
| Pharmacist in practice: 'Training and practice are intertwined' ... plinary approach where each profession can contribute to patient health. But carving out a role as a pharmacist in this part of primary care hasn’t always been so seamless. Having completed his pre-registration year in hospital and community pharmacy, Amardeep hoped that working in the community would give him the patient interface he wanted. ‘I've always been more interested in directly impacting patien ... Date: 11-04-2024 Categories: • In Practice • Interviews • Pharmacy First |
| GPhC acknowledges pressures ‘across all of Great Britain’ ... g hub as part of the health and social care workforce. On workforce concerns, they added: ‘The Scottish Government Health and Social Care Integrated Workforce plan committed to increasing pharmacy pre-registration training places by 120 over four years from 2020/21 and we increased training places available for pharmacy technician training by 108 in 2022. ‘The chief pharmaceutical officer has established a ... Date: 10-01-2024 Categories: • Community • In Practice • News |
| Meet the Pharmacy Team of the Year Award shortlist: Chester East PCN pharmacy team ... armacy students from Liverpool John Moores University is a testament to their commitment to nurturing the next generation of pharmacists. They've also taken steps to offer cross-sector placements for pre-registration pharmacists, allowing them to gain valuable experience in both hospital and community pharmacy settings. The team’s service expansion included the introduction of face-to-face heart failure review ... Date: 29-11-2023 Categories: • Analysis |
| New trainee funding risks pay below minimum wage, sector warns Increased funding set to be given to community pharmacies hosting foundation year pharmacists may still not be enough to cover the additional costs of delivering a placement or trainee salaries, sector leaders have w ... Date: 08-11-2023 Categories: • Community • News |
| Independent prescribing training for existing workforce ‘biggest challenge’ for pharmacists Independent prescribing (IP) training for the existing workforce was considered the biggest challenge facing the profession in our exclusive survey of community and practice pharmacists. Respondents were asked wha ... Date: 27-10-2023 Categories: • Community • In Practice • News |
| Views sought on increasing practice pharmacist training placements in Wales A consultation in Wales is seeking views on a primary care workforce plan for the country that includes increasing the number of pre-registration training placements for practice pharmacists. Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) and the Strategic Programme for Primary Care (SPPC) have outlined ‘key actions’ contained within the Str ... Date: 04-10-2023 Categories: • In Practice • News |
| Exclusive: Scotland’s pharmacotherapy service needs long-term workforce planning ... for different practices, such as utilising hubs. In particular, she said that reinstating the funding to train pharmacy technicians would help. The RPS said that it understood that the National pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician was announced in 2022 and not renewed in 2023, with Health Boards now having to fund any training themselves. ‘The funding being pulled is definitely one of the major d ... Date: 20-09-2023 Categories: • In Practice • News |
| PGDs for pharmacy technicians will make community career ‘more attractive’ ... vacancies in community pharmacy had increased by 375% between 2017 and 2022, the CPWDG report added. While there are efforts to increase the size of the pharmacy technician workforce, such as the pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians (PTPT) programme, the group said that ‘a lack of clarity over current and future roles of pharmacy technicians’ and ‘a lack of distinction between pharmacy technician and ... Date: 08-09-2023 Categories: • Community • In Practice • News |
| Funded training for prescribing supervisors launched ... es available for pharmacy staff to train as Designated Prescribing Practitioners (DPPs), with a further 500 places to support other educational supervisors, including Designated Supervisors (DSs) and pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technician education supervisors. Any experienced prescriber from any profession and any healthcare setting can apply for the DPP training if they are supporting community pharmac ... Date: 30-08-2023 Categories: • News |
| Total community pharmacy workforce drops 6% in a year ... 2022. And while there was an increase in the number of trainee dispensing assistants and medicines counter assistants, the survey suggested a reduction in the numbers of foundation pharmacists and pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians. The head count of pre-registration pharmacy technicians working in community pharmacy decreased from 957 in autumn 2021, to 793 in autumn 2022. And the number of f ... Date: 03-08-2023 Categories: • News |
| Summer registration pass rate lowest in three years This summer’s pass rate for the common registration assessment for pharmacists was the lowest since 2020, according to figures released today. Just over three-quarters (77%) of the 2,805 candidates passed the asse ... Date: 28-07-2023 Categories: • News |
| NHS needs to ‘get serious’ on prescriber training ... nd should be matched by investment in practical experience. And in a joint statement in response to the workforce plan, the CCA and the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said that changes to the pre-registration training to include independent prescribing will ‘create a once in a generation opportunity’. They added that the NHS ‘must now be clearer on the opportunities prescribing pharmacists will have in ... Date: 13-07-2023 Categories: • News |
| More detail on proposed pharmacist apprenticeships needed ... t raised concerns about the suitability of a community pharmacy setting ‘as being conducive to gaining a professional degree qualification’, citing poorer exam results among those who undertook their pre-registration training in community, as well as the ‘reality of conditions’ in community pharmacy workplaces. And in its 2022 statement the PDA also raised concerns about how independent prescribing, now part o ... Date: 05-07-2023 Categories: • News |
| NPA chair: Sector needs funding for ‘stable environment’ to attract students ... rew Lane said many students currently doing workplace placements in community pharmacy were seeing a ‘very chaotic’ sector in transition as it prepares for independent prescribing (IP). Changes to pre-registration training will see all new pharmacists qualify as IPs from 2026. ‘We've got to make community pharmacy an attractive place to work as a career, and to a large extent, unless we get the funding righ ... Date: 30-03-2023 Categories: • News |
| Move to ICBs will require multidisciplinary clinical leadership, says RPS board member ... he first time in the 2022 training cohort year, in England is 2,520. The education and training required to become a pharmacist is a four-year MPharm degree plus one year of foundation (previously pre-registration) training ending with the General Pharmaceutical Council’s (GPhC) Registration Assessment. All pharmacists practising in Great Britain must be registered with the GPhC. To register they must pass ... Date: 13-03-2023 Categories: • Analysis |
| HEE announces funding for 3,000 independent prescribing places ... s, including community pharmacists and locums, but does not cover 'backfill' funding for trainees or supervisors. It is intended to help existing pharmacists to upskill in line with the changes to pre-registration training that will see all new pharmacists qualify as independent prescribers from 2026. ‘Fully using the clinical skills and capabilities of community pharmacists, supported by significant invest ... Date: 23-02-2023 Categories: • News |
| Pro-pharmacy MPs share the changes they want to see ... ss to read and write patient notes. Pharmacy curriculum Ms Owatemi, who also works as an NHS cancer pharmacist, said that the scope of the pharmacy foundation course could be expanded, so that pre-registration pharmacists would have a range of skills, and called for changes to the pharmacy curriculum that would help pharmacists overcome barriers to holding leadership positions. ‘In order for pharmacy to ... Date: 22-12-2022 Categories: • News |
| Meet the Pharmacy Team of the Year Award shortlist: TWNS PCN Pharmacy Team ... further strengthening our networks and communications. We are committed to the development of individuals and have embraced the opportunities to provide in-house training of pharmacy technicians and pre-registration pharmacists, ensuring we are not depleting the workforce outside of our own practices by developing our own. If the team were to win the award, it would be testament to the hard work, resilience, and ... Date: 29-11-2022 Categories: • News |
| Meet the Pharmacy Team of the Year Award shortlist: South Kerrier PCN ... Pharmacy Team in Cornwall. South Kerrier PCN Pharmacy Team was only assembled in September 2020, under somewhat difficult circumstances, as its two new PCN pharmacists were not yet qualified, the pre-registration exam having been delayed due to Covid. Despite this, the team has measurably improved patient safety by focussing on high-risk drugs by developing and implementing automated safety searches, stand ... Date: 16-11-2022 Categories: • News |
| Pharmacists included in NICE self-harm guidance for the first time ... ents and products patients might access in the pharmacy. To explore this, the study authors interviewed pharmacy staff including dispensing/pharmacy assistants, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, pre-registration pharmacists and delivery drivers. Since the publication of the research, Zero Suicide Alliance training for patient-facing pharmacy staff has been incorporated into the Pharmacy Quality Scheme and ... Date: 08-09-2022 Categories: • News |
| Supply of IBS drug Buscopan ‘patchy’, says supplier ... th and Social Care (DHSC) about the situation. The Pharmacist has also approached the DHSC for comment. Healthcare professionals have taken to Twitter with concerns about the shortage, with one pre-registration pharmacist commenting that Buscopan is ‘out of stock literally everywhere in West Yorkshire’, and a GP commenting that they had heard of a ‘national shortage’ of the drug. This comes after a PSNC ... Date: 26-08-2022 Categories: • Nutrition and gastroenterology |
| Boots’ chief pharmacist awarded OBE: 'The positive difference that community pharmacy has made is extraordinary' ... ist Marc Donovan was one of three pharmacists honoured with an OBE as part of the Queen’s Jubilee Birthday Honours list. Mr Donovan has worked at Boots for more than 25 years, joining in 1996 as a pre-registration pharmacist, and has been in his current role since 2015. Mr Donovan said: ‘I’m honoured to accept this recognition on behalf of the many dedicated and hard-working pharmacists and pharmacy teams t ... Date: 07-06-2022 Categories: • News |
| Scottish Government invests £3.4m into pharmacy technician apprentice scheme ... sted £3.4 million into an apprentice programme that should lead to 150 pharmacy technicians trained and recruited into general practices, hospitals and community pharmacies this year. The national pre-registration trainee pharmacy technician scheme will see 50 technicians start in April with another 100 apprentices set to be recruited by the autumn. The Government said it hoped the new scheme will help to ‘ ... Date: 11-03-2022 Categories: • News |
| I made the decision to ‘just’ be a community pharmacist ... tors may this as a less challenging or rewarding career choice This year, when I qualified as a pharmacist, I made the decision to stay working in community pharmacy, where I had also completed my pre-registration training. But since starting the MPharm I had felt conditioned to see community pharmacy as a ‘default’ career path by peers and sometimes even senior colleagues. That working in community pharmac ... Date: 16-11-2021 Categories: • Opinion • Views |
| Over 80% pass rate for July registration exams, says GPhC ... She said: 'RPS would like to congratulate candidates passing the registration assessment today. Achieving a pass rate of 82% - the second highest since 2016 – is testament to the hard work of pre-registration candidates through adversity. As well as having to sit an online exam for the first time, candidates had the Covid-19 pandemic to contend with. 'We understand that failing an assessment can be dis ... Date: 09-09-2021 Categories: • News |
| RPS details new education framework for newly qualified pharmacists ... support new registrants, employers and training providers to plan early post-registration development programmes over the next five years.’ Following the structure of the GPhC initial training for pre-registration pharmacists and the advanced and consultant-level training set out by the RPS, the new pathway is split across five domains: Person-centred care and collaborationProfessional practiceLeadership an ... Date: 13-08-2021 Categories: • News |
| Covid vaccinations: hard work for high rewards ... upport is really rewarding professionally. It is great experience for some of our pharmacy teams to be involved in something so different from their day-to-day activities. Our pre-registration pharmacists, ACTs and pharmacy technicians alongside all our regular pharmacy managers and locum pharmacists have been trained to be vaccinators and to help with the reconstitutio ... Date: 20-07-2021 Categories: • Opinion • Views |
| Scottish prov-reg students get NHS funding to help resit exam in July ... going live, leaving many students in Scotland no choice but to travel hundreds of miles from their home. However, the GPhC soon announced that further test centre places in Scotland for the March pre-registration assessment had been secured. Date: 14-05-2021 Categories: • News |
| GPhC announces 88% pass rate for first online registration assessment ... gulator, 90.2% of 1310 candidates who sat the assessment on 17 March passed, while 86.4% of the 1356 who sat the exam on 18 March also passed. A total of 1782 candidates who were undertaking their pre-registration training placements in a community pharmacy sat the assessment, with 84% (1501) achieving a pass mark. This was the first registration assessment held online after it was initially postponed last ... Date: 29-04-2021 Categories: • News |
| Impact of pandemic on pharmacy students’ education should be assessed, says PSA ... anuary 2022 in order to ‘mitigate some of the issues’ delayed exam sittings may cause. Last month, the regulator also announced that the clinical training providing to provisionally registered and pre-registration pharmacists during the pandemic will be assessed. The PSA report concluded that the UK health and social care regulators had reacted quickly to the pandemic and ‘kept the show on the road’, which ... Date: 16-04-2021 Categories: • Covid-19 • News |
| GPhC commissions research into pandemic impact on pre and prov-reg pharmacists The clinical training providing to provisionally registered and pre-registration pharmacists during the pandemic is to be assessed, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has announced. The regulatory body said yesterday (25 March) it had commissioned Keele University to re ... Date: 26-03-2021 Categories: • Covid-19 • News |
| NI pre-reg exam to be held in June after pandemic ‘significantly impacts’ joint plans with GPhC pre-registration students in Northern Ireland will sit a ‘bespoke’ registration exam on 8 June, instead of the common registration assessment arranged by the GPhC in July, the Pharmaceutical Society NI has said. I ... Date: 25-03-2021 Categories: • News |
| Almost 3,000 students to take pre-reg exam this week after months of delays Almost 3,000 students will take the pre-registration exam this week after months of delays. The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) confirmed to the Pharmacist yesterday that 2,899 students have booked an appointment for a test centre or to sit th ... Date: 16-03-2021 Categories: • News |
| ‘The GPhC left us in the dark for too long’ ... istered pharmacist. There is no doubt that this pandemic has been challenging for so many healthcare professionals across the whole system, both in the hospital and in the community sectors. As a pre-registration pharmacist, who stepped into a pandemic in the middle of their training, I can definitely say it has been the toughest experience. I, along with many other pre-registration pharmacists, faced so m ... Date: 16-03-2021 Categories: • Opinion |
| Provisional register extended until early 2022 ... k as a provisionally registered pharmacist up until January 2022, if they decide not to sit until November. This comes as some candidates reported last month that they had struggled to book their pre-registration exam at a test centre near to where they lived, due to slots booking up ‘within minutes’ of going live. Students also criticised the regulator after they booked afternoon exam slots via the booki ... Date: 15-03-2021 Categories: • News |
| GPhC confirms extra pre-reg exam places in Scotland Further test centre places in Scotland for the March pre-registration assessment have been secured, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has announced. The regulator said this means that Scottish candidates who want to sit the pre-registration exam in Scotland ... Date: 03-03-2021 Categories: • News |
| Students who fail pre-reg exam should not be removed from register, says BPSA Students who choose to sit the pre-registration assessment in March should not be removed from the register if they fail the exam, the British Pharmaceutical Students’ Association (BPSA) has said. In a statement published last week, the student ... Date: 11-01-2021 Categories: • Covid-19 • News |
| GPhC: March pre-reg exam still going ahead but situation ‘under active review' The delayed pre-registration assessment for 2019/20 candidates is still expected to go ahead in March despite calls to cancel it, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has confirmed. In a letter sent to candidates last ni ... Date: 06-01-2021 Categories: • Covid-19 • News |
| Pre-reg exam date confirmed for March 2021 The delayed pre-registration assessment for 2019/20 candidates will take place on 17 and 18 March 2021, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) has confirmed. Candidates will take the online exam at a test centre after conc ... Date: 30-11-2020 Categories: • News |
| More than half of prov-reg pharmacists working in community pharmacies ... l support, its inspectors have contacted the employer wherever possible ‘to seek assurance that they have made steps to rectify these’. Pre-reg exam Last month, the regulator announced that the pre-registration exam for 2019/20 students will be held ‘in the first quarter of 2021’, after it was postponed earlier in the year due to Covid. The delay in setting a new date had previously been criticised by th ... Date: 30-11-2020 Categories: • News |
| ‘I faced a GPhC inspection in my second week as a prov-reg pharmacist’ It’s fair to assume that the idea of ‘a provisional licence or registration’ to practice as a pharmacist in the UK had not crossed the minds of the vast majority of the pre-registration pharmacist cohort or those involved in their training. However, this idea has quickly become a reality for many in the midst of this ongoing pandemic - with further details of the upcoming examinatio ... Date: 13-10-2020 Categories: • Views |
| Keith Ridge predicts a more ‘clinical future’ for pharmacy post Covid-19 ... , while a discharge medicines service will commence in the new year, Dr Ridge said. He also spoke of developments around the accelerated reform of initial education and training for the MPharm and pre-registration, which are designed to ensure a ‘pipeline of pharmacists with clinical skills’ are available. The existing pharmacy workforce will also be able to ‘accelerate their development to the same level o ... Date: 17-09-2020 Categories: • Covid-19 • Latest News • News |
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