Hospital Pharmacy vacancies 'notably higher' than UK average

Friday 30 August 2024

The Hospital Pharmacy continues to be plagued with staffing issues amid reports of poor culture, with seven vacancies currently being covered by agency staff – who are often paid higher rates than local talent.

A response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Law recently revealed that five Clinical Pharmacist roles are now filled by agency staff and three are in the process of being recruited – while only one of these posts is currently filled by a ‘substantive employee’.

A vacant Lead Pharmacist role and Senior Pharmacy Technician role are also being covered by agency staff.

Pictured: The FOI response revealed the current staffing levels in the Hospital Pharmacy.

Just this month, independent reviewers prescribed a major cultural reset for the pharmacy after finding that staff felt unsupported and that some had apparently faced "punitive measures" for taking sick days, leading them to occasionally come into work even when feeling unwell.

Comments from two senior NHS pharmacists painted the picture of a workforce that was strained, stressed and "dismissed" by senior managers, carrying out operations within "cramped" spaces and an "unjust culture" that was the result of "longstanding" issues within the department.

The review found that staff turnover rate was slightly lower than the UK average (15.8% compared to 18.1% average).

However, vacancy rates varied between different staff groups and seniority, but were notably higher overall for a pharmacy than the UK average (18.5% compared to 12.8%).

The reviewers wrote: "High levels of vacancies, turnover and union activity were fed back as being present for a number of years."

"The department has staffing shortages with limited resilience, due to the cultural and local issues as such the cost of living and unique aspects of working on an Island," the reviewers added.

It made a series of recommendations to help current staff deal with workloads and restructure the department to ease staffing pressures.

Pictured: Deputy Binet has been aware of staffing issues in the Pharmacy and has pledged to tackle them.

Since the publication of the report, Health Minister Tom Binet has pledged to resolve cultural issues within all departments of the Hospital before the new acute site is expected to be completed in 2028.

He said Hospital Pharmacy staff had been made aware of the findings of the independent review and an "Action Plan" was now in development, which is due to be submitted to the Health Advisory Board in September.

He added that improvements were already being made while the review was taking place, some of which resulted in reducing the queues to collect prescriptions at the Hospital.

Several Clinical Pharmacist roles – which offer an annual salary of over £60,000 – were up for grabs on the gov.je jobs website for months, and the Health Advisory Board previously received a report which noted issues with recruitment and retention and that "HCS must make things better for pharmacy staff in the organisation".

At the beginning of the month, the Quality, Safety and Improvement Committee – which made the comments – requested a follow-up report in six months to assess improvements made to the Hospital Pharmacy staffing situation.

When long queues were causing difficulties at the pharmacy in April, Deputy Binet himself noted that he was aware of some staffing issues but that he could not comment on individual "employment matters". He reassured islanders that the issue was being dealt with.

Agency staff spending has become a chronic problem for the Health Department regarding its overall budget, and it ran a £32.5 million deficit for 2023.

A report published earlier this week urged the Department to undertake a workforce review to determine the number of staff required to provide an efficient service.

"Further work needs to be done to reduce long term locums and to make substantive posts more attractive to staff," the report said.

Data released in May showed that an overspend on agency workers totalled nearly £5 million and was the main driver for Health's financial issues.