Many industries are experiencing labour shortages, and community pharmacies are no different.
What is the problem?
The landscape of community pharmacy and pharmacist recruitment is changing. There has been widespread media coverage about workforce issues facing the sector. A perfect storm of:
- COVID-19 (increasing demand for their services);
- Brexit (which has seen a drop in EEA pharmacists registering in the UK); and
- the recruitment drive of pharmacists into primary care networks (PCNs) and GP surgeries
is being blamed for a national shortage of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
Whilst some areas of the country are worse impacted than others, this is far from a localised issue.
The laws of supply and demand dictate that where increased competition for recruitment meets a declining pool of applicants, the costs of employment will escalate.
This matches what we are seeing with a number of our community pharmacy clients. Many of our independent (owner-managed) operators have bemoaned a return to “pre-pandemic working hours” – being forced to cover any gaps in the rota stemming from either an inability to recruit or unviable employment costs. Long term, this is unsustainable, and a number of contractors have expressed grave concerns that such working practices could jeopardise patient care and/or result in closure (whether temporary or permanent) if the situation does not improve. In the last four months, we have also had two corporate transactions abort (one at the “eleventh hour”) citing impracticable running costs caused by pharmacist recruitment requiring double the normal salary in order to attract any interest.
What is the solution?
Solutions, in order to be long-term and deep-rooted, need to directly address the causes of the problem. Pharmacy bodies are calling for adequate investment, improved collaboration across the whole of primary care, and the better promotion of careers within the sector including incentivising more undergraduates into studying pharmacy.
It is understood that NHS England and NHS Improvement are consulting with pharmacy bodies, and we shall be keeping a close eye on any updates.
The above “solutions” are neither guaranteed, nor an overnight fix. With no clear roadmap or timescales in place for addressing these issues, one potential, more immediate solution may be for contractors to register as a sponsor with the Home Office and access the points-based immigration system to sponsor employees who are not UK citizens.
Pharmacists have been included on the Home Office’s shortage occupation list, following a recommendation from the department’s Migration Advisory Committee that there are not enough skilled resident workers to fulfil sector demand in the UK. This makes it easier for staff from abroad to apply for a visa through the UK’s immigration system (as explained further below).
The Heath and Care Worker Visa
The Health and Care Worker Visa comes under the Skilled Worker route and allows medical professionals, including pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, to come to, or stay in, the UK to work with the NHS or an NHS supplier. When compared to the Skilled Worker route for other professions, the Health and Care Worker scheme offers:
- 50% visa fee reduction
- Exemption from the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS)
- Speedier decision following an application (decision within 3 weeks)
- Applicants’ dependants also pay reduced fees and are also exempt from the IHS
Under the UK’s immigration system, people applying for a skilled worker visa must reach 70 ‘points’ to be eligible.
Applying for a job on the shortage occupation list is worth 20 points. This — combined with the mandatory criteria of having an acceptable standard of English, an offer from a licensed sponsor and the required skill level, which are worth 50 points — will ensure people in these roles reach the necessary number of points and could go some way to addressing the recruitment issues pharmacies are currently experiencing.
Please do not hesitate to contact David Seddon, Legal Director, or Brendan McAleese, Legal Director, should you wish to discuss any of the issues mentioned within this blog.
