We were contacted today by a locum in a hospital trust who said that the trust had decided to finish all locums at the end on the month as part of their cost cutting measures.

The hospital pharmacy concerned is already running at very challenging staffing levels and it came as no shock when we were contacted by a pharmacy technician later in the day who had decided to hand her notice in due to the stress at work.

So does this mean their will be no locum work in hospital pharmacies in the near future? No, but i think it will get worse before it gets better. All trusts have to save money, the highest cost is always staff so the quickest and most effective way of saving money is to cut staff. Locums on temporary contracts are the easiest to cut so as the financial pressures get worse, locum numbers go down.

However, as the locum numbers drop so the number of permanent employees leaving position will rise as the stress levels increase. Trusts won’t fill these vacancies permanently but will look ironically look to plug the gaps with flexible workers i.e. locums!

This all applies to dispensary pharmacists, the trust have no option but to keep hold of specialists pharmacists.

So all you hospital locum out there, fear not! You time is coming…again!