The latest NHS community pharmacy workforce survey points to a 16 per cent rise in the number of “long standing” vacancies for community pharmacies in England. 

The Health Education England survey reveals that in 2023 there were 3,950 full-time equivalent vacancies for pharmacists, compared to 3,381 in last year's survey. Only “long standing” vacancies were included in the report – those that at the time of filling the survey had been open for longer than three months without anyone being appointed to the post.  

The number of FTE pharmacists held relatively steady, falling by one per cent to 17,666, while the total headcount of pharmacists fell by 0.8 per cent to 27,487.

Meanwhile, the number of FTE pharmacists working as locums rose by 11 per cent to 6,073 when compared with last year while the total number of pharmacists working as locums rose by 5.6 per cent to 12,809, suggesting that locum pharmacists are working more hours on average than they did last year. 

These findings were higher than for employed pharmacists, who held 10,413 FTE roles in 2023 compared to 10,944 in 2022. 

The was a sharp 17 per cent drop in the number of FTE pharmacy technicians, from 5,252 to 4,324, while the number of FTE vacancies for this role fell from 1,263 to 1,133. However, the number of pre-registration trainee pharmacy technicians rose from 744 to 993.

Unlike previous HEE workforce surveys, the published dataset does not include information on the number of pharmacies that responded. 

Some findings appear anomalous, such as the statistic that 100 per cent of employed community pharmacists in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region are funded by their employer to work in other primary care settings and that 68 per cent of community pharmacist in Nottinghamshire also work in hospital outpatient departments. HEE has been approached for comment. 

Commenting on the workforce report, Company Chemists’ Association chief executive Malcolm Harrison said: “For the second year running, there has been an alarming decline in the number of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians practising in the community. Over one in five pharmacist roles are vacant.

“The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan set out details to increase the size of the pharmacist workforce. Over a year later, we have yet to see the detail on how this will be delivered. Moreover, our concerns regarding the supply of Designated Prescribing Practitioners (DPPs) have yet to be addressed. 

“We need to see immediate action taken to address this growing problem so that pharmacies have the long-term confidence to invest in the expansion of their workforce.”