“My name is Faarooq Anwar, for those people who don’t know me I am a Pharmacist based in Leeds, I am 30 years old (apparently over the hill according to my other half…) and I am wanting to do something to give back to those who cannot do the things that myself and most other people take for granted everyday. So here I am 
I am hoping to raise £3000 for the charity REGAIN (charity that raises funds to support people paralysed in sporting accidents). This involves a 400km bike ride from the Taj Mahal at Agra to Jaipur, over five days. This bike ride will involve able-bodied cyclists and tetraplegic hand cyclists. There are costs involved in the travel, food etc, but I will be paying these out of my own pocket as I feel it unfair for people who donate to have to bear these costs and so therefore the £3000 I am hoping to raise will solely be going to the charity, and remember the £3000 is a target, I am hoping to raise as much money as possible so please pass the message on.”
Just started using Kashflow for all our accounts. So happy with the product that we have negotiated with discounted rate for all our locums – usually £15.99 per month now £14.99 if you click on the link below. Also 60 days free trial – you can’t go wrong!
We are moving to new accountancy software today – fingers crossed Kashflow works for us!
You are cordially invited to the launch of our Facebook fan page. We will be updating it on a daily basis with jobs, pharmacy news and gossip from PL-UK and beyond.
In my last post http://www.pluk.co.uk/2010/comments-of-the-letters-in-the-pj/ I launched a defence of the community pharmacy locums workforce. Today I want to take this one step further. Rather than their being “something rotten” about 24% of pharmacists working as locums. I argue that this percentage will be much higher in the future in both the community and hospital sectors.
Community pharmacies, like all businesses exists to make money, whether it be for the owner/manager or the shareholders of the multinational operators like Boots, Lloyds etc. They will always look to minimise the costs to the business in terms of salaries or, in the case of locum pharmacists, locum fees. I don’t have a problem with this, it’s just business.
However, what happens when the costs of engaging locums actually costs roughly the same as employing an employee pharmacist? What locums can give you is flexibility, reliability, the ability to work in stressful environment and in most cases losts of experience. Just this week we have had a locum coordinator on the phone because six employee pharmacists have called in sick! Six at the same time. ” What is the area manager doing about it” we asked ” Nothing, they are too scarred that they will leave them!!” came the reply. Our experience have to have their head hanging off before thy phone in sick as they don’t get paid sick pay.
So why not run you shops on locums instead of employees? There’s no holiday pay, no pension contributions, no sick pay, no employers National Insurance contributions, a back-of-a-fag packet calculation puts these additional costs at 35% of the employees salary costs in addition to their basic pay. That’s not taking into account bonus payments that many emlpoyee pharmacist are entitled to. The issue that stops the companies saving monies is where the costs are allocated on the Profit and Loss account.
The hospital sector I believe will rely even more on locums in the future. The recruitment freeze in place across the NHS means that, as employee pharmacist in the NHS leave their positions, they won’t be replaced. We have one pharmacist and a technicians leaving positions in the next few weeks and their work colleagues are already asking how they are supposed to cope. They are rushed off their feet at the moment, how are they going to profide a safe service in the future with even less staff? I’m sure that the trust managers, as they go through their own redundancy situation will stop pharmacy departments recruiting replacement pharmacists and technicians but the department has to function safely. Locums are the obvious solutions. Flexibility, no holiday or sick pay and no pensions are very attractive options at this point. So what that locums are paid more than employees. The overall costs are lower.
So my expectation is that the love/hate relationship between locum pharmacists and the larger multiples will move closer to love and that the hospital sector will become more and more reliant on both locum pharmacist and pharmacy technicians. I might be wrong but I’d be interested to hear what you think.
Agency Workers Regulations – how does it effect me?
The simple answer is it doesn’t. …. in most cases. For more expert guidance than I can supply as a pharmacist rather than a legal bod please click on the link below. http://www.pcg.org.uk/cms/documents/01109%20PCG%20A4%2020PP%20BROCHURE%20SINGLE%20PAGES.pdf
One in a lifetime opportunity – pharmacist required in Tonga
We have been approached by a not for profit pharmacy in the Kingdom of Tonga asking us to recruit a pharmacist to work at one of the health centres in the Kingdom. This opportunity will definately not come up again for if you fancy a complete change of scene and an opportunity to live on [...]
Just a quick post to remind all pharmacist that they need to renew their GPhC registration by the 31st October. So you still have a month to pay but if you are anything like me, if you don’t do it now, there’s a chance you’ll forget!
Enter your email address below to receive updates each time we publish new content.
