Most pharmacists working at the Norfolk hospital could be dismissed from their posts on September 1 if they refuse to accept new contracts which would see their on-call payments slashed by up to two thirds. The PDA Union believes that this would seriously undermine pharmacy service provision and put patients at risk, particularly as King’s Lynn is a difficult area for pharmacist recruitment and the Trust is already struggling to fill existing pharmacist vacancies.
Mark Pitt, assistant general secretary of the PDA Union, which represents the affected pharmacists, comments:
The Trust is taking a particularly aggressive approach on this issue and our members are very concerned at the imposition of an unfavourable on-call policy that has been introduced without proper consultation. Our members had very limited opportunities to input into the new arrangements and their concerns have been largely ignored. This has resulted in a policy that doesn’t reflect the reality of providing a pharmacy on-call service.
The Trust plans to issue pharmacists and other healthcare professionals with new contracts so that they will be employed under less generous terms and conditions. Any employees who refuse to accept the revised terms will effectively be dismissed. Virtually all pharmacists currently employed by the Trust are refusing to accept the new terms and conditions. The new arrangements do not pay pharmacists for providing telephone advice from home for calls which last less than 15 minutes, which is contrary to national NHS guidance. And as far as the PDA Union is aware, this Trust is the only one adopting such an approach. Most round up short calls to minimum blocks of 15 minutes work. The nature of pharmacy on-call services often means that calls for professional advice can be dealt with in less than 15 minutes; however a pharmacist who had to deal with frequent short calls throughout the night or weekends would not be paid for any of these.
“It is a ridiculous expectation that highly skilled pharmacists should not be remunerated for their work in providing such a valuable service from home and the Trust’s policy is at odds with national NHS guidance in this area,” says Mr Pitt. “If the Trust carries out its threat to dismiss these pharmacists the consequences for local healthcare provision would be disastrous.”
The PDA Union is currently in urgent discussions with the Trust to resolve the situation as soon as possible so that pharmacists are paid fairly for their demanding role and to ensure that patients are not placed at risk.