Pharmacy academics have raised concerns about the “uncontrolled increase” in pharmacy schools and said the NHS must invest in undergraduate training to support plans for boosting the workforce. 

The Pharmacy Schools Council said yesterday (August 8) that the NHS commitment to adding a further 1,500 undergraduate places between 2022 and 2031 is “welcome” but added that it “places great pressure on an already strained and constrained higher education sector”. 

There are currently 29 fully accredited MPharm programmes in the UK, with the University of Leicester to take its first cohort this September and the University of Swansea “very close” to having its programme accredited. 

“Absorbing over 1,500 new students into these 30 schools is problematic due to resource constraints both in terms of the physical environment and student/staff ratios,” said the PhSC. 

It said that “at least seven more universities” are in the early stages of getting an MPharm course accredited, which could exacerbate teaching staff shortages. 

“It is not uncommon for advertised posts to attract only one or two suitably qualified candidates,” said the PhSC, going on to say that it is “increasingly common” for new pharmacy schools to poach staff from other universities. 

The organisation claimed that the main barrier to recruiting pharmacists “with the correct clinical expertise” to deliver courses with an increasingly practical emphasis is a lack of funding in the higher education sector, “mostly due to the fact that student tuition fees have not increased since 2012, when they were set at £9,250” – though it added that “in real terms” the value of tuition to students is “actually only worth £6,500”.  

This forces pharmacy schools to either “manage with a smaller staff base” or recruit at “lower grades” within the higher education pay spines, said the PhSC, which claimed typical hourly rate at universities do not match pharmacy locum rates. 

The PhSC said that although it welcomes work being done by the chief pharmaceutical officer for England’s team to enhance clinical academic careers, “this does not address the current salary disparities between HEIs and the external workplace”.

The organisation asked for discussions with each of the four UK chief pharmaceutical officers to discuss ways to address looming staff shortages.