All Revved Up With No Place To Go

More young people than ever before are taking a degree in pharmacy...

There are more schools of pharmacy than ever before, and more students in them. New university courses seem to be popping up everywhere. A recent report by the Modernising Pharmacy Careers Programme stated that the number of pharmacy schools in England increased from 12 to 29 between 1999 and 2009, and the number of pharmacy students went up from 4,200 to 9,800.

The problem with this situation is that some students are finding it very difficult to obtain pre-registration places; and pharmacist jobs are becoming more hard to find. Surely this situation needs to be addressed? With over demand, the knock on effects to terms of service and moral within the profession will be catastrophic.

There is simply no point in producing loads of expensive pharmacists with nowhere to go...except out of the profession?

Thankfully, pharmacy organisations are talking about this and hopefully a solution will evolve...perhaps in the form of more roles for pharmacists - let's hope so - for the sake of young pharmacists...

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