The CCA, AIMp, BPSA, and NPA are appealing for an immediate reinstatement of community pharmacists to the Shortage Occupations List after the removal of community pharmacists from the list by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) last month.

The pharmacy bodies have submitted evidence jointly to MAC of the shortage of community pharmacists and the need for non-EU pharmacists to be permitted to work in UK community pharmacy.

The evidence submitted includes workforce statistics that demonstrate the difficulty in assessing the number of pharmacists required from simply looking at the workforce census data. In addition the picture is not uniform across the country and several areas of the UK have particularly hard to fill vacancies.

There is an increased demand for community pharmacists due to the rise in pharmacy numbers throughout the United Kingdom (2008 to 2009), increasing opening hours and demand for pharmacists to deliver additional services.

The MAC decision has practical consequences for pharmacy businesses and human consequences. Amongst others, it affects non-EU overseas pharmacists in the UK who have just completed their diploma and who have had offers of pre-registration training jeopardised by the ruling. BPSA has submitted evidence of the hardship being caused to these students. The decision, if not reversed, will have a consequential impact of registrations in 2010.

The pharmacy bodies are asking for an urgent meeting with the MAC secretariat and officials from the UK Border Agency to argue for an immediate reinstatement of community pharmacies onto the Shortage Occupations List.

Source
National Pharmacy Association