How is pay in pharmacy?

I saw a job last week, a 5 day, 45 hour week (no lunch break! or 'working lunch' as its known in retail!) new quals considered and it was 30k. And there was one for 26k at a medium chain. Now that seems pretty good. (Although I was earning that in the late 90s !) BUT remember, there is not much career progression in community, so where that will go, what with the over-supply of new pharmacists is anyone's guess. But supply and demand...... !
I would recommend a pharmacy degree. I would NOT recommend a ''career'' in community/retail pharmacy. See my other posts for advice on money now and 'back in the day' !

You are quite correct. If you want a progressive career structure, then go down the hospital route. (I have never done NHS hospital work!)

There isn't really a career structure in community. There used to be in the big chains where you could go down the store management route, but now they tend to use non-pharmacist managers. But you would need to go and talk to Boots and Lloyds people to find out more about that. I don't work for them any more!

The job I do today is the same as the one I was doing 20 years ago when I qualified! OK, there are a few new things, like medicine reviews, flu vaccines, morning after pill, smoking cessation clinics, minor ailment schemes. But mainly you are labelling and dispensing prescriptions, advising on OTC remedies and supervising medicine sales and counselling patients on their prescriptions. The RPS and other vested interests will try to talk up pharmacy, and yes, there are a few new things on the horizon. The biggest thing being developed at the moment is working in GP surgeries, as a practice pharmacist.This started I think in the 90s and has developed. So that may be a new route and of course, it will be much more clinical knowledge use, like hospital is. You will be able to train as an independent prescriber and do a post-graduate diploma to increase your knowledge in certain areas. Of course as these jobs are probably better paid, there may be a lot of competition for them in the coming years, and also from people desperate to escape the hamster wheel of daily retail pharmacy life!

The main problems with community are the same repetitive job day after day, which for a highly knowledge skilled graduate gets to be very dull! I make it interesting for myself by doing locum work at regular places I have found over the years so I get to know the staff and surgeries and patients. But I find if I work a 4 day week, (which in hours is the same as a normal full working week for most people! Many pharmacies are 0830 to 1830 or 0900 to 1900) in 3 or 4 different shops a week it is slightly more tolerable.

Also since the payment for drugs was changed by Labour in 2008, and ''category M'' was introduced whereby payments to pharmacies were changed and substantially reduced in many cases, many pharmacies, both chains and independent started to try to cut costs. And of course this has lead to a caping and reduction in the locum rate and salaries stagnating. I haven't had a pay rise since 2008. Also support staff have been reduced to cut costs, just at a time when we are being asked to do more, and are dispensing twice as many script items as when I qualified. This leads to pressure and stress, which can lead to errors and disgruntled patients who hate waiting. You need to be good at crowd control! And also tempering people's expectations. For example, a person may only have a script for 1 inhaler, but if there are already 5 people waiting for on average 6 or 8 items each, then Yes, it will possibly take half an hour! AND... during all this you need to slot in 3 or 4 medicine review a day, or the area manager will be on the phone! AND.. you may have addicts to pour methadone for and watch them drink it... AND.. you may have nursing homes and/or monitored dosing trays to make up. (blister packing of meds). Then of course the phone will ring....and ring.... and ring. And don't forget the collections from surgeries and the deliveries that need to be done for the driver to take out. I can honestly say, I am NEVER bored, there is always something to do, but sadly I often feel there is 12 hours' work to squeeze into 10!
However, you will see and talk to dozens of people from all walks of life, each and everyday. If you enjoy meeting, talking to and helping people and can manage your time and can stay calm and work fast under pressure, then you will be fine. And it does feel good knowing you have helped someone, or advised someone and saved a GP appointment or being told you are much better than the GP!! Personally though, I feel at the moment, the cons outweigh the pros!

All of this can make for a very stressful day. And you will probably have no control over the situation, i.e. not allowed to get in extra staff without the area manager's permission. Now, repeat this 4 or 5 days a week for 47 to 48 weeks of the year. It is very stressful. Forget having a lunch break. Forget paper work, which there is loads more, you will need the staff to do that or go in early or stay late.

As for motivation, I think a lot of people just see it as a job now to pay the bills. It doesn't feel like a profession any more. My career will not be 50 years!! I am saving like mad to ISAs and SIPPs to exit at age 55/56 in around a decade when I can access my private pension which I started the minute I qualified. When I began we were relatively well paid. This has changed over the last 5 to 8 years. I would think a good salary for a busy pharmacy may be around 40 to 50 k a year for a 40/45 hr week. And probably much less as more pharmacists are churned out???! Now compare that with NHS hospital doctors and consultants and also GPs and dentists. Relative to them, it isn't a lot for what they expect you to do these days. That is MY opinion. (and yes I am aware of how long these other professions train, but I feel they get rewarded in the long long term and pharmacists..... not so much!! But that is just MY opinion!! Others may disagree?!)

As for development you are expected to keep up to date and do CPD. You need to log 9 pieces per year. Currently this is ''marked'' every 5 yrs. I enjoy learning and the whole science and medicine and theory behind my job so I don't find it too arduous but, of course, most courses are on your day off or on evenings, so in your own time and probably unpaid too.

Some pharmacists may think I am being unkind and I hope I haven't painted too negative a picture?!! but I prefer to be honest so people going into retail pharmacy know exactly what they are walking into with their eyes wide open
!
Get yourself down to see pharmacists from different chain and supermarket pharmacies. Most pharmacists these days are employees and work for chains in community. Probably 70+%. The chance to own your own pharmacy is slim unless you have rich parents OR are going to inherit a pharmacy.

SO...... research.... read the PJ site, RPS, Pharmacy Forum, the Chemist and Druggist site and Locumvoice. There you will be able to see and read a lot more about the everyday life in community pharmacy. I would recommend a pharmacy degree. I would not recommend a career in community pharmacy as it exists right now. All the very best for the future. !

Oh BTW, you could always print this out, and take it to a few local pharmacists and explain your situation, and ask if you could leave it with them and call back at a later date to discuss community pharmacy with them! I would be interested to see what you find!

I registered as a Pharmacist in 2012, one job offer I got was for £25,000 per annum as a Pharmacist Manager working 40-44 hours a week. I obviously declined as I knew a friend who was on a salary of £21,000 as a pre-reg, however i had the bank of mum and dad to support me until i could find a decent job but I'm sure there are many who are not as fortunate as me to have the support i did.

I have more or less locumed since i registered and have never done a full week as a locum. Only since February this year have I found a decent enough job that I can afford to move out and rent a flat, and before you think I must be a bad Pharmacist or exception to the rule there are many people I know (including friends) who cant find work.

This was not worth the 5 years of study, really wish i picked something else.

In the UK I don't personally get offered anything less than £20/hour as far as locum rates go so most people should be able to get at least that. In pharmacy its more about who you know than anything else, the more people you network with whilst on jobs the more you get invited to new jobs and before you know it find your diary very booked out but of course you must give off a decent impression when you work and be a likeable character. It's 'ok' money is the best way to describe it but it's nothing that will see you particularly rich any time soon and you will still financially struggle at times to get the home you like or the car you like with any sort of ease. Starting from scratch with no decent inheritance? By the time you're on the ladder you would have aged some for sure.

Some would argue if you want decent amounts of money quick, go into investment banking etc but those sectors are also overly saturated with people who are thinking this exact same thing 'im going to get a lot of money fast minus the stresses of being a health professional' but it's not as simple as that. There are many people jobless in these sectors who have also worked very hard to get into firms sitting multiple exams to no real avail. You only ever hear of the few that got lucky and that's why it gives the impression that people in this sector are all making it large. My friend went into this field and sat tons of exams even after uni and is merely paid £30k odd per annum for full time work at a well known firm and that's less than what a freshly qualified locum pharmacist can make if they're booked out an average of just 4-5 days a week. There is also very little job security and stability in these financial sectors one minute you're doing well at your chilled out unsocial desk job and it's almost too good to be true but then next minute you're told not to come to work anymore, you're being cut as a sacrifice by the company that can't afford to keep you on despite you being more than capable of managing your workload.

Now, if you want good money fast as a pharmacist you may well need to look into owning your own business but that doesn't come without it's own pains and requirement of knowledge and experience in the business side of this profession either and some may just say today it's not worth the extra cash with all the responsibility and paperwork they've created for us pharmacists.

I conclude the easiest way to decent quick money as a pharmacist would probably be to look abroad with an education credential evaluation and transfer mainly to countries like USA/Canada where pharmacy jobs are still fairly saturated (don't get me wrong) but at least are still growing, not declining. This is without mentioning the existence of much larger profit margins, median salaries that tower over those of the NHS burdened UK pharmacists. Although added expenditure/costs of living exist in comparison such as dearer groceries, having to pay health insure etc it's still obvious to the naked eye that you will be more well off abroad with the bigger salary and counter savings on necessities like fuel costs which are sky high in Britain but dirt cheap in comparison in the US (This is just an example I could think of that we as nation spend a lot of our money on that Americans don't). With the current exchange rate, If the UK annual salary averages at £35k($43k) the US salary averages at $110k (£88k) so you can see the huge difference. There is a saying, if you don't like where you are.......move. You're not a tree with set roots. Of course for many, moving countries and leaving family and loved ones behind for a new life is not an option or it may just seem like too much effort for the lazy so for those type of people I suggest you ignore my last paragraph.

Good luck to everyone in finding success or happiness (They're not quite the same thing albeit)

In the UK I don't personally get offered anything less than £20/hour as far as locum rates go so most people should be able to get at least that. In pharmacy its more about who you know than anything else, the more people you network with whilst on jobs the more you get invited to new jobs and before you know it find your diary very booked out but of course you must give off a decent impression when you work and be a likeable character. It's 'ok' money is the best way to describe it but it's nothing that will see you particularly rich any time soon and you will still financially struggle at times to get the home you like or the car you like with any sort of ease. Starting from scratch with no decent inheritance? By the time you're on the ladder you would have aged some for sure.

Some would argue if you want decent amounts of money quick, go into investment banking etc but those sectors are also overly saturated with people who are thinking this exact same thing 'im going to get a lot of money fast minus the stresses of being a health professional' but it's not as simple as that. There are many people jobless in these sectors who have also worked very hard to get into firms sitting multiple exams to no real avail. You only ever hear of the few that got lucky and that's why it gives the impression that people in this sector are all making it large. My friend went into this field and sat tons of exams even after uni and is merely paid £30k odd per annum for full time work at a well known firm and that's less than what a freshly qualified locum pharmacist can make if they're booked out an average of just 4-5 days a week. There is also very little job security and stability in these financial sectors one minute you're doing well at your chilled out unsocial desk job and it's almost too good to be true but then next minute you're told not to come to work anymore, you're being cut as a sacrifice by the company that can't afford to keep you on despite you being more than capable of managing your workload.

Now, if you want good money fast as a pharmacist you may well need to look into owning your own business but that doesn't come without it's own pains and requirement of knowledge and experience in the business side of this profession either and some may just say today it's not worth the extra cash with all the responsibility and paperwork they've created for us pharmacists.

I conclude the easiest way to decent quick money as a pharmacist would probably be to look abroad with an education credential evaluation and transfer mainly to countries like USA/Canada where pharmacy jobs are still fairly saturated (don't get me wrong) but at least are still growing, not declining. This is without mentioning the existence of much larger profit margins, median salaries that tower over those of the NHS burdened UK pharmacists. Although added expenditure/costs of living exist in comparison such as dearer groceries, having to pay health insure etc it's still obvious to the naked eye that you will be more well off abroad with the bigger salary and counter savings on necessities like fuel costs which are sky high in Britain but dirt cheap in comparison in the US (This is just an example I could think of that we as nation spend a lot of our money on that Americans don't). With the current exchange rate, If the UK annual salary averages at £35k($43k) the US salary averages at $110k (£88k) so you can see the huge difference. There is a saying, if you don't like where you are.......move. You're not a tree with set roots. Of course for many, moving countries and leaving family and loved ones behind for a new life is not an option or it may just seem like too much effort for the lazy so for those type of people I suggest you ignore my last paragraph.

Good luck to everyone in finding success or happiness (They're not quite the same thing albeit)