Introduction

This paper reports results from the second Community Pharmacy Survey undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) in conjunction with Community Pharmacy Scotland (CPS), following a pilot survey undertaken in 2016. Independent community pharmacies and pharmacies in the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA) were asked to supply information on staff and vacancies for the week commencing 4th March 2019.

The survey gathered information on staff in post and vacancies, reported as both Headcount (HC) and Full Time Equivalent (FTE).

Information was gathered about the following roles:

  • Pharmacists including Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacists, Locum Pharmacists and Central staff Pharmacists
  • Pharmacy Technicians including Pharmacy Technicians with accuracy checking, Pre-registration Trainee Pharmacy Technicians and Central staff Pharmacy Technicians
  • Dispensing assistants including Dispensing Assistants with accuracy checking, Trainee Dispensing Assistants and Central Staff Dispensing Assistants
  • Medicines Counter Assistants, including Trainee Medicines Counter Assistants and Central Staff Medicines Counter Assistants.

Results

Response rates

The response rate to the survey was 100%.

According to data from National Services Scotland (November 2018) there are 1257 Community Pharmacy Contractor codes in Scotland. Of these, CCA pharmacies account for 608 (48%) and non-CCA pharmacies account for 649 (52%).


Composition of the workforce

Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff

N.B. Excludes trainees, locums and central staff. Support staff are Dispensing Assistants and Medicines Counter Assistants/Healthcare Assistants/Healthcare Partners

National Headcount results show that there are 1,729 Pharmacists, 1,132 Pharmacy Technicians and 5,021 Support Staff working in Scotland. Differences between Headcount and Full Time Equivalent numbers indicate the levels of part-time working.

Results are also presented by Region:

  • North Region, which consists of NHS Shetland, NHS Orkney, NHS Western Isles, NHS Highland, NHS Grampian, and NHS Tayside
  • East Region, which consists of NHS Lothian, NHS Fife, and NHS Borders
  • West Region, which consists of NHS GG&C, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, and NHS Lanarkshire

Numbers vary across Regions and NHS Boards.


National

Regional

Board


All roles

The following charts and tables present the data for all roles covered in the survey, including locums, trainees and central staff where relevant. Medicines Counter Assistants, Healthcare Assistants, and Healthcare Partners are jointly referred to as Medicines Counter Assistants. 2019 has also seen the emergence of a new role within Community Pharmacy: Dispensing Assistant with accuracy checking qualification.

Pharmacists account for 19.5% of the overall FTE. The largest staff group is Dispensing Assistants which accounts for 30.1% of the overall FTE.

The distribution of roles is broadly similar in the CCA and Non-CCA sectors. There are some differences between the two sectors in the amount of part time working in some roles.

All roles (table)

All roles (chart)

By employer (chart)


Staff FTE change since 2016

The 2016 pilot survey responses for non-CCA pharmacies were weighted due to lower response rates, while 2018 results are unweighted. Results are therefore not strictly comparable and the chart below should be viewed in that context. Data for Central Staff were not collected in 2016 and data for Locum Pharmacists and Dispensing Assistants with Accuracy Checking were not collected in 2016 or 2018.

Pharmacists appear to have seen a reduction in FTE since 2016. There has been a displacement of Pharmacists from Community Pharmacy to Primary Care with the community roles being filled by less experienced pharmacists. There has also been an overall reduction in the number of Pharmacy Technicians in the Community sector since 2016 and a reduction in the number of Pre-registration trainee Pharmacy Technicians since 2018, whereas there has been a corresponding rise in the number of Dispensing Assistants and Medicines Counter Assistants in post between the 2018 and 2019 surveys. This may be due to a number of Pharmacy Technicians moving to Primary Care and employers recruiting more Dispensing Assistants to fulfil this role.


Staff and vacancies by Role

The following sections present headcount, FTE and vacancy rates (%) for each role group and role, nationally and at board level. Vacancy rate was calculated as FTE vacancies divided by establishment FTE, which was taken to be the sum of FTE and FTE Vacancies.

We also present the number of a given role per 10,000 people in each board. A national benchmark is shown on the charts as a dashed line and was calculated by summing the individual Board populations. Board populations are based on National Records for Scotland’s mid-2018 population estimates.

Overall national headcount and FTE numbers for Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians and Support Staff (excluding locums, trainees and central staff) can be found above in Composition of the Workforce - National.

The figures indicate that Pharmacist staff numbers have not decreased significantly since 2018 and there are fewer vacancies than the previous year, possibly due to restructuring within the Community sector which has removed roles and therefore reduced vacancies. In addition, the issue of recruiting Pharmacists to the more remote and rural health boards is borne out in the results where higher vacancy rates exist.


All roles

The following table presents a comparison of national workforce measures between 2018 and 2019. N.B. Data on Locum Pharmacists and Dispensing Assistants with Accuracy Checking were not collected in 2018.



Pharmacists

Staff and Vacancies Table

FTE Chart

FTE per 10,000


Locum Pharmacists

Staff and Vacancies Table

FTE Chart

FTE per 10,000


Pharmacy Technicians

Staff and Vacancies Table

FTE Chart

FTE per 10,000


Dispensing Assistants

Staff and Vacancies Table

FTE Chart

FTE per 10,000


Medicines Counter Assistants

Staff and Vacancies Table

FTE Chart

FTE per 10,000


Community Pharmacist Prescribing

The table below details the number of Pharmacists who are qualified as Independent Prescribers (IP). This information is collected by NES Pharmacy when pharmacists are funded on the IP course and updated with Examination Board data from the two Schools of Pharmacy. Health Boards update this data annually in regard to their pharmacists’ activity and workplace.




This survey would not have been possible without the participation of Scottish community pharmacy contractors, the CCA, Scottish Community Pharmacy Champions and the Primary Care Community Pharmacy Leads Group. We thank them for their time and effort in providing the relevant data.