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5.3.4. Conclusion
Pharmacy workforce retention was the main challenge identified by the 2009 pharmacy workforce assessment. This challenge emanated from many other factors relating to pre-service pharmacy education, job descriptions not specific to functional job areas, limited opportunities for career development, and inadequate rewards systems for the workforce.
The MoH and its agencies such as the Pharmacy Council, in consultation with the MoE and the Universities, is addressing pre-service pharmacy education challenges with the introduction of the Pharm D programme and the establishment of the College of Pharmacists to expand career development opportunities locally. Need-based post-service education programmes for all categories of the pharmacy workforce has also been implemented by the Pharmacy Council in collaboration with related agencies and donors.
There are efforts to improve the rewards systems and also streamline workforce training and development to meet institutional and personal needs to improve workforce retention and hence the quality of lives of all people living in Ghana.
References
1. Ghana Demographic and Health Survey 2008. Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Ghana Health Service (GHS), and ICF Macro. Accra, Ghana: GSS, GHS, and ICF Macro; 2009. Available from: http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/ pdf/FR221/FR221.pdf
2. Assessment of Ghana Pharmaceutical Human Resources 2009 (unpublished).
3. Specialist Health Training and Plant Research Act, ACT 833, 2011.
4. Ghana National Human Resource Strategic Plan for the Health Sector, 2007 2011.
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5.4. Case study: Great Britain
Authors
Chris John, Workforce Development Support Lead, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Great Britain, Christopher.John@ rpharms.com; Ian Bates, Head of Educational Development, UCL School of Pharmacy and Expert Advisor to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
Summary
The analysis of the General Pharmaceutical Council s 2010 register of pharmacists indicated that there were 50,664 pharmacists in Great Britain, with the majority working in the community sector.
There has been a period of unprecedented growth in the UK s health care workforce. Demand is also increasing.
The UK s current economic difficulties and restrictions on public spending mean that further growth of the health care workforce is unsustainable. The workforce will need to work more productively in order to meet demand. Making the pharmacy workforce more productive will require a review of skill mix.
There is increasing evidence that there is not an undersupply of pharmacists in Great Britain.
Health Education England (HEE) will provide sector-wide leadership and oversight of workforce planning, education, and training in the NHS in England. In Scotland and Wales, this is the responsibility of the devolved administrations.
It is important that a robust body of evidence is built to support development of the pharmacy workforce in Great Britain.
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), the professional leadership body for pharmacists and pharmacy, aspires to be the national body that members of the profession, the public, and the government go to for advice about all aspects of the pharmacy workforce.
5.4.1. Background
The pharmacy workforce in Great Britain continues to change. The General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) have regulated pharmacists since September 2010 (previously, the regulator was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain). Mandatory registration of pharmacy technicians with the GPhC has been in place since July 2011. Pharmacy assistants are not formally regulated but pharmacists are professionally accountable for this part of the workforce. The GPhC s functions include approving qualifications, accrediting
education and training providers, maintaining registers, setting standards, and establishing fitness to practice requirements. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) is now the professional leadership body for pharmacists and pharmacy in England, Scotland, and Wales. The RPS promotes pharmacy to ensure that pharmacists are recognised within the NHS and wider society as experts in medicines. The RPS is facilitating effective approaches to workforce planning and development for the profession.
Effective workforce planning and development supports pharmacy service quality by ensuring that a sufficient number of pharmacy staff with the right skills are in the right place, at the right time, at the right price [1]. Key to this is being able to understand the pharmacy workforce. Each year, an analysis of the register of pharmacists is conducted, providing useful demographic data. The most recent published analysis conducted in August 2010 [2] indicated that there were 50,664 pharmacists in Great Britain and that the register had grown by 2% since 2009. Information was also provided about age, gender, ethnicity, and entrants/exits from the register. Numbers of independent and supplementary prescribers were also described.
Findings from the pharmacy workforce census [3] conducted in 2008 provide information about the socio-demographic profile and employment patterns of pharmacists. Analysis based on data from respondents to the census (from 69.6% of registered GB resident pharmacists) indicates that most pharmacists were employed in the community sector (71.0%), with 21.4% work- ing in hospital pharmacy. Significantly, community pharmacy locum posts accounted for 23.1% of all posts.
5.4.2. Key issues
The NHS
Over the decade between September 2000 and September 2010, the National Health Service (NHS) workforce grew by 30% [4], reaching 1.4 million people employed and maintaining its place as the third largest workforce in the world. The UK s (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) economic difficulties and restrictions on public spending have made this growth unsustainable. The focus now is to increase the productivity of the workforce in other words, provide the same quality of service with the same number of staff or less. However, demand for health is increasing: The population is living longer and is more reliant on medicines. In England the proportion of the population aged 60 and over has risen from 20.7% in 2000 to 22.4% in 2010, and there is a strong relationship between the proportion of the population aged 60 and over and the number of prescription items dispensed.
This relationship is reflected in the rising number of prescriptions dispensed each year. In 2010 community pharmacies dispensed 926.7 million prescription items [5], an increase of 3.5% from 2009 and an increase of 58.2% from 2000. Evidence from the NHS Pharmacy Education and Development Committee s 2011 National NHS Pharmacy Establishment and Vacancy Survey [6],
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