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A report from pharmacy employer trade bodies has warned that while “record numbers” are joining the professional register, community pharmacy is facing a workforce capacity crisis that “threatens NHS ambitions”.

Published yesterday (October 7), the report from the Community Pharmacy Workforce Development Group (CWDG) – made up of the Company Chemists’ Association (CCA), National Pharmacy Association (NPA) and Independent Pharmacies Association (IPA) – said the sector “has less workforce capacity than it did four years ago”. 

“The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) community pharmacists has fallen by 14 per cent since 2021, while the number of FTE pharmacy technicians has fallen by 11 per cent,” said the CWDG.

This is despite the fact the number of registered pharmacists and pharmacy technicians has seen average yearly growth of two per cent and three per cent respectively since 2020.

“Change is needed to ensure these professionals choose community pharmacy, remain in community pharmacy, and crucially, can be employed sustainably within community pharmacy settings,” said the report. 

Part-time working, “significant recruitment” of pharmacy staff to the hospital and general practice sectors and a rise in pharmacists working outside the NHS are all contributing factors, the report said. 

The CWDG added: “As a result, the sector could need thousands more pharmacists simply to maintain current capacity.

“This is even before accounting for rising demand or the significant expansion of community pharmacy’s role envisioned in the NHS 10 Year Plan.”

The group called on the Government and NHS “to develop a long-term, system-wide pharmacy workforce strategy as part of the upcoming NHS workforce plan,” adding that policymakers “must not rely on a simple assumption that more students will automatically lead to more registrants, or that more registrants will automatically increase workforce capacity”. 

The report recommended aligning levels of workforce supply with “projected demand” for existing and forthcoming services and recognising the impact changing work patterns and new career pathways have on workforce capacity, as well as ensuring that policies introduced in other NHS sectors “do not unintentionally destabilise” pharmacy’s workforce supply.

Improved funding and support for retention and career progression were other key demands from the CWDG. 

Boots Healthcare development director and CWDG chair Marc Donovan commented: “The headline workforce figures paint a positive picture. More people are studying pharmacy, undertaking training and joining the professional register.

But those numbers mask what is happening on the ground. Community pharmacy's capacity is shrinking, with fewer full-time equivalent pharmacists available to deliver patient care than four years ago.

If the NHS wants community pharmacy to do more, it must plan for the workforce needed to do it. Otherwise, we risk building plans for expanded patient care on capacity that simply isn’t there.”