Are there too many schools of pharmacy churning out too many pharmacists?

Thu, 24/05/2012 - 13:28 – Ayshe Ismail

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Read the story that inspired the poll.

Ayshe Ismail
PJ Online team

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Fri, 25/05/2012 - 20:42 – Claire Anderson

"churning out"

The term churning out is rather pejorative considering the high standard of education in our pharmacy schools. Please can you change it?

Claire Anderson Professor of Social Pharmacy, University of Nottingham.

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Fri, 25/05/2012 - 15:17 – John Smart

John Smart I agree with the above, MPharm graduates are not 'churned out', this is a little demeaning to them and the profession, can this be changed? Generally we would like to start a serious discussion about ways of ensuring sustainability in pharmacy education and the supply of new entrants to the profession. It is interesting to note that there does appear to be a sense that we are starting to match supply and demand so this seems a good time to start such a discussion.

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Fri, 25/05/2012 - 15:44 – Francesca Rivers

In reply

We have discovered that the more controversially our polls are worded, the higher the voting rates and the better the comments.

As these are designed to be a snapshot of a particular issue, we need to attract people to take part - and, at the time of writing, this poll has encouraged nearly 50 people to take part after being live for only 24 hours.

Your comments make valid points about the quality of pharmacy schools and graduates, and will serve as good fodder for debate.

Francesca Rivers

PJ Online team

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Fri, 25/05/2012 - 15:56 – Graham Phillips

Churning Out

As a former Chair of the old RPSGB Education Committee (which used to accredit all UK schools of pharmacy) I absolutely agree with Claire and John. Students are absolutely NOT "churned out"

The academic standards of the MPharm are rigourously quality-controlled and I am pleased to be able to say with confidence there are NO bad schools of pharmacy.

That said we undoubtedly have a problem. Other medical professions plan their workforce and have different (and more generous) funding mechanisms. If we are truly to produce fit-for-purpose, "patient-centred, medicines-focused" health professionals this requires a radical rethink.

It is an unacceptable waste of financial resources and human talent (not to mention five years of student debt as we move towards the intergrated degree)if we don't plan.

Without some urgent planning we will end up with MPharm graduates with no pre-reg place and/or with qualified pharmacists who will have no job. What a waste! I'm sure noone wants to see that.

Graham Phillips

EPB Member

Graham Phillips www.manorpharmacygroup.co.uk "committed to your health" 2 High St, Wheathampstead, AL4 8AA Tel/Fax: 01582-629675 Mobile 07768-275802 E-mail graham.phillips@manorpharmacygroup.co.uk

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Sat, 26/05/2012 - 10:02 – TF Chan

Capping pharmacy student numbers

Workforce planning is crucial to the future of pharmacy - if planned well it will provide sustainable employment to new graduates and high quality pharmacists to the profession. Last month I read an interesting article in The Times, which reported a group of law students suing their universities for over producing law graduates. This resulted in their inability to find employment and therefore they were unable to pay their student loans. Unless we review the pharmacy "demand and supply" urgently I fear this case scenario may find its way into our profession too.

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Tue, 29/05/2012 - 20:01 – Ho-Shun Chik

To some extent maybe there

To some extent maybe there are too many pharmacists. On the other hand one must consider that the distribution of pharmacists in the UK isn't exactly uniform. It comes to no surprise that the big cities will have a higher proportion of pharmacists - and may even be saturated with overwhelming surplus of pharmacists. Yet there are job opportunities to be had in less urbanised areas provided that one is willing to travel more extensively or even re-locate. As of writing, I do believe that the demand and supply is there. The issue maybe that the supply is not necessarily distributed to where the demand is hence competition for jobs in some areas are seen as a problem.

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Wed, 30/05/2012 - 09:54 – Andrew Low

Too many pharmacy students

It would be better to regulate this more sensibly. No-one wants people studying for so long and then not becoming a pharmacist. It would just lead to bitterness in the people who fall by the wayside. We ought to be more thoughtful about this problem.

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Mon, 04/06/2012 - 08:12 – David Kent

Too many SoP

Perhaps those voting against the premise are more interested in driving down pay rates than driving up standards.

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Tue, 05/06/2012 - 14:18 – Matthew Forrester

Number of Pharmacy students

I am a Pharmacy student who has just finished his second year of study at Kingston University. My classmates and I are all very concerned about the number of Pharmacy students being accepted into university each year. The demand for placements and jobs has been escalating to higher and higher levels each year.

What I do not understand is why the GphC has yet to put caps into place to limit numbers? The univerisities will not decrease their yearly intake of students until told to do so, the revenue made from them is too great. A system similar to the medical field needs to be applied, so that supply meets demand and is sustainable for the future.

Without regulation I fear many newly qualified Pharmacists will have to venture abroad in order to find work.

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