Growing pharmacy workload 'unsustainable' without more staff, PDA warns

The continued growth in pharmacy workload is ‘unsustainable’ without extra staff and better facilities, a membership organisation has said.

A report from the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) highlights there has been a 300% growth in pharmacy services between 2021 and 2025, up from 7.5 million to 25 million, alongside 25% growth in dispensed prescription items in the past decade.

Meanwhile, it said there has been a 10% decline in the number of bricks-and-mortar pharmacies, while the number of pharmacists and support staff has remained static.

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It warned that the present pace of growth in workload is not sustainable and that extra workforce and better premises capacity are needed.

The report added: ‘Such an intensity and pace of work is simply untenable, where there is no commensurate increase in the workforce to match this huge increase in workload intensity’.

The report also said that the number of Pharmacy First consultations had increased by 25% since it launched two years ago, with a number of sector leaders and organisations calling for an expanded service.

However, the PDA said that a ‘more considered whole system’ approach was needed, because it is ‘unclear how total system or pharmacy premises capacity has been factored into this call for expansion’.

The report also highlighted the need for improvements to pharmacy premises – including the addition of larger, better-quality consultation rooms – and the recruitment of additional pharmacists.

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It added: ‘For most of the working week a pharmacist will be working alone and without another pharmacist or a pharmacy technician being present. This is neither sustainable nor desirable and it is not safe for patients.’

In its recent evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee the PDA said that pharmacy premises should be considered part of the NHS estate to support the delivery of a neighbourhood health service.

Its new report, published last week, also called for representatives of the pharmacist workforce be involved in contractual negotiations, especially when new services are introduced.

‘Community pharmacy has undergone a huge transformation in the past 20 years since the introduction of the 2005 pharmacy contract. Pharmacies are dispensing record volumes of prescription items, undertaking vital clinical checks on every single item whilst doing so, and are providing services at a record volume,’ the report said.

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It added: ‘The workforce capacity must increase to manage this workload on a sustainable basis. The [government’s] 10-Year Health Plan envisages a significant role for neighbourhood community pharmacies and especially for prescribing pharmacists.

‘To enable this vision to come to life safely and sustainably, it needs a bold reimaging of future community pharmacy practice.’