I spent yesterday evening at a CPPE event in Teeside entitled “Communicating locally with commissioners and GP consortia” The evening was enjoyable and informative but one thing struck me about the presentation that was given by the evening’s expert. He talked about GP’s and how they are affected by all the NHS changes but also about how they will affect pharmacy and pharmacies. He emphasised the need for pharmacies to talk to GP’s
What’s wrong with that I hear you say? Well, GP’s are people and pharmacies are bricks and mortar so to be facetious, that’s never going to be possible! More seriously I made the point that I believe this is our weakness as a profession. We talk about shops and The Profession but not about the professionals that run them i.e. you and me – pharmacists.
The changes that are coming at us thick and fast at present, especially the White Paper “Equity and excellence – liberating the NHS“ and these changes have the potential to change things for the better for pharmacists but we need to stop thinking about bricks and mortar and think of ourselves.
The business of pharmacy is important but leave that to your area and regional managers. Focus of making things better for the patients you serve every day and find out about what is going on in your local area. Read the local Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment , what can you do as a pharmacist to plug any gaps in identified in the PNA?
If you focus on making life better for your patients and engage with local commissioners everything will be fine. People build relationships with people, not shops so start building your relationships with your local surgery, talk to your local authority, talk to your local LPC. Heaven forbid, you could even talk to each other. Remember the pharmacists who works down the road for multiple X is probably under the same stresses as you in multiple Y and even independent pharmacy Z.
Pharmacists have a fantastic future ahead of them, if the grab the nettle now and focus on themselves and deliver real benefits for their patients and local commissioners.
When you are looking for a new job, where do you look first? Monster? Total Jobs or corporate websites like Boots and Lloyds?
I’d be really interested to know
Healthy Living Pharmacies in Portsmouth are seen by many as the model for pharmacies in the future and pharmacy organisations have agreed to develop the concept in further pathfinder sites
http://www.psnc.org.uk/news.php/970/healthy_living_pharmacies_progress_after_national_summit
There was a time when all you needed to do to obtain work as a locum pharmacists was prove your registration with the RPSGB. Not so now, especially in certain parts of the country.
What are your experiences?
It disappoints me sometimes when we talk to locum coordinators who want a locum for a gap. 
The disappointment is not because they have approached me to fill their requirement, it’s that they just want a locum i.e. anyone with a GPhC registration.
Locum pharmacists, like all professionals cover a normal distribution curve in terms of ability, attitude and professionalism. i.e. some a fantastic, some are rubbish and most sit somewhere in the middle.
At PL-UK we are confident that our locum pharmacists and locum pharmacy technicians are very much at the top-end of the normal distribution curve i.e. fantastic and as such we want locum coordinators to want a PL-UK locum, not just any locum. I guess our challenge is getting this message across.
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.
