We are really keen to talk to pharmacy technician who have experience working for the MOD in the recent past. In the last week alone we have been asked to fill five medium to long term positions across the UK and Europe so the opportunities are out their for you to secure great work at top rates.
To enable PL-UK to place you in these vacancies we need to gather a number of documents to adhere to the MOD’s strict compliance standards. Please find the list below:
CV – Employment gaps longer than 4 weeks explained
Don’t worry if you don’t have all this to hand, PL-UK will support you to make sure you can pass the compliance checks. Please call Shaun on 0800 881 8844 if you would like more information.
When I first became a pharmacist 17 years ago, a wise old pharmacist told me that the most important person in the shop is the pharmacy technician. When I became a manager for Boots sometime later, a wise old area manager that the most important person in the shop was not the shop supervisor but the pharmacy technician and this went on and on throughout my career in community pharmacy.
Why is it then that pharmacy technicians in the community get paid so poorly, especially when you compare them to NHS colleagues with similar qualifications? My personal belief is that pharmacy technicians are exploited in community pharmacy and the fact that a very high percentage of technicians are women is the main reason. We have found in cases where a particularly high percentage of employees are women that the reward associated with the job is much lower than where there is a mix of men and women performing a role. A very good example of this can be found in local government where councils are having to pay over £500 million in back pay to women on low pay http://www.lga.gov.uk/lga/core/page.do?pageId=4339139
In the NHS, most pharmacy technicians are part of a union and the union negotiate with the NHS on their members behalf. In addition the NHS went through the Agenda for Change programme which looked at each role are banded in with comparable jobs in other professions. To illustrate a normal band for a pharmacy technician in the NHS would be 5 or 6 and the salary range for these bands would be £20,202 to £32,662 with some pharmacy technician earning considerably more than that as they take on management roles.
So are pharmacy technicians the most undervalued resource? No, they are not undervalued but they are definitely the most under-rewarded.
We are looking for NVQ 3 qualified pharmacy technicians to work in secure establishments in North and West Yorkshire. Must be CTC level cleared. Call Linda on 0333 123 3344 for more information
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.
We have some fantastic positions in hospital and prison service pharmacies for locum pharmacy technicians but alas, no technicians to fill them.
If you know and locum pharmacy technicians, particularly in the Yorkshire/North East England region, please let me know.
Rewards are on offer!
Shaun
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!
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