Archive for July, 2009

Just thought i’d wright a quick post to giv a bit of detail about the different requirements needed to work as a locum pharmacist in the community and hospital/prison service sectors:

To work in the community sector as a locum pharmacist or locum pharmacy technician all clients generally need is to confident that you are a knowledgable, trustworthy pharmacist or technician and that you are currently on the practising register of the RPSGB register of pharmaceutical chemists.

To work as a hospital locum pharmacist or locum pharmacy technician there are afew more hoops to jump through:

The documentation listed below is indicative of the information we will need before we are able to secure you work as a hospital locum; however our consultants will guide you through the compliance process, with advice and practical assistance throughout the application stage.

Getting ready for locum work

The following documentation will be required

* Application form

* Verified copy of Passport

* Proof of eligibility to work in the UK

* Copies of all professional qualifications

* Copy of your current RPSGB Certificate (where applicable).

* 2 passport photos

* Immunisation records for Hep B, Tuberculosis, Measles, Mumps and Rubella

* Self certification of immunity against Varicella, Tetanus, Hepatitis A, Poliomyelitis and Diptheria.

* Proof of your address, e.g. a copy of a utility bill.

* Signed top copy of our Agency Staff Handbook.

To work within the NHS all locums must have a valid enhanced CRB disclosure. PL-UK can make all the arrangements for this to be carried out but please remember this can take between 2-6 weeks.

Guidelines issued by the NHS state that all locums must have annual training in Health and Safety related issues; it would be helpful if you could forward any copies of courses you may have attended. However, if you haven’t completed the training PL-UK can make arrangements for this to be completed.

You might ask why locums go though all this when they could secure community pharmacy locum work. There are a number of advantages:

• Better hourly rates – over £40 per hour in some cases
• Long term bookings – income security
• Better working environment – regular breaks and no MUR targets!
• Increased job satisfaction in many cases.
• Team working with other professions.

The swine flu pandemic has highlighted the need for PL-UK to build up their bank of Emergency Locum Pharmacists. By emergency I mean locum pharmacists who are willing to wait until the morning to take locum placements and rightly expect to receive a premium rate. e.g. £25 plus two hours travel or even higher – the most we have secured for a locum is £40 plus 2 hours travel.

Working as an emergency pharmacy locum has it’s risks; There is a possibility that you might not get any work on any particular day and that’s why you charge a premium for the work you do secure.

If you are interested in working as an emergency locum, please call Linda on 01677 424215 (Direct Line) and inform PL-UK on a daily basis if you are available

PL-UK – for all the best pharmacy jobs

Please find below a call to action from Graeme Stafford to delay the implementation of RP regulations. I think Graeme raises a number of points which need to be answered before the regulations go live.

Shaun

Dear Shaun

Please sign the petition asking for the postponement of the Responsible Pharmacist regulations:-

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/postpone-the-rp-regulations.html

There are now less than 70 days until these regulations come into effect and will affect so many of us in our everyday professional lives.

If we are going to get them postponed we need to act quickly.

What seems so utterly wrong is that we will be made completely responsible without being granted any additional control over our working environments.

Will we suddenly be able to set staff and training budgets, choose which wholesaler to use, decide how we want to design and equip our dispensaries and write our own SOPs?

How many of us will be willing to risk our employment status by standing up to our employers?

Why is there no concept of Responsible Owners?

When the chips are down, when something goes wrong, when an error occurs,  who do you think will suffer?

If you have any concerns at all about the RP regs., if you want the Council of the RPSGB to take up this cause, if you want the Department of Health to listen

then please sign the petition as soon as possible and ask as many colleagues as possible to do likewise.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/postpone-the-rp-regulations.html

Thank you, as always, for your continued support,

Graeme Stafford

http://apjonline.blogspot.com/

P.S. If you have already signed I thank you but please do whatever you can to get more of your friends and colleagues to do likewise.

We very rarely advertise in the PJ because of the costs involved and because for most of the year, advertising online proves to be more affective at recruiting high quality, internet savvy locums. However, the week that pre-reg pharmacists become newly qualified pharmacists is a bit different. The broad-brush advertising that the PJ allows us to perform means that we can reach out to all the newly qualified pharmacists to try and convince them that PL-UK is the agency to use. Unfortunately, all the other major agencies think the same.

The main advantage I know we have are our staff. Lynne, Linda and Dee are the best locum coordinators in the country so I know that when a locum talks to one of the PL-UK team, we’ll get them hooked!

You should find a copy of the email from mark Kalziol of the PDA blow. It’s pretty self-explanatory:

The PDA’s campaign to persuade the government to reconsider the
Responsible Pharmacist regulations and to delay their implementation is
gathering momentum. We have now written to the government requesting a
formal meeting and we are also arranging meetings with a number of
influential MP’s.

Key to the success of this initiative, is that we will need to provide
evidence to government to show the extent of the problem.

Already we have received more than 2,000 responses to our electronic
survey and a recently launched petition calling for a delay of the
implementation of the regulations has produced 600 responses.

However, we need even more responses if we are to improve our chances of
success.

We therefore urgently appeal to members who have not yet participated in
the survey or the petition to do so as quickly as possible.

Complete the Survey: http://www.the-pda.org/newsviews/nv_survey1.html?id=441

Sign the Petition: http://www.gopetition.com/online/29439.html

Regards

Mark Koziol

Chairman, The Pharmacists’ Defence Association

The Old Firestation
69 Albion Street
Birmingham
B1 3EA

Tel: 0121 694 7000
Fax: 0121 694 7001