More misery for NHS hospital pharmacists

摘要

The proposed changes in on-call payments for hospital pharmacists are yet another nail in the coffin for NHS pharmacy. First, the proposed "recruitment and retention fee" was thrown out by the previous Government. Now thousands of hospital pharmacists will see their on-call allowance drastically reduced when new arrangements come into effect on 1 April 2011. This will constitute a pay cut of over ￡2,000 for the majority. This is, of course, on top of the public sector pay freeze for the next two years, which will equate, in relative terms, to around a 10 per cent drop in pay for a band 6 or band 7 pharmacist.