EXCLUSIVE Just 31% of community pharmacists see themselves working in either a salaried or contractor community pharmacy role in five years' time, our snapshot survey has suggested.

And 16% think they will no longer be working in pharmacy at all, while 23% think they will be retired.

Almost 250 pharmacists working in general practice or community settings were asked about their career intentions in the coming years, as part of a survey carried out by The Pharmacist late last year.

In comparison, 72% of pharmacists working in a general practice or primary care network (PCN) think they will still be in the same sector in five years' time.

Solutions needed to make community pharmacy 'an attractive and viable career path'

Jay Badenhorst, director of pharmacy at the Pharmacists' Defence Association (PDA), described the community pharmacy statistics as 'alarming' and 'troubling'.

'Factors such as excessive workloads, inadequate staffing and poor remuneration are contributing to a workplace environment that many find unsustainable,' he suggested.

And he said employers and policymakers needed 'to engage meaningfully with the profession, and especially the workforce'.

'It is crucial to develop solutions that ensure the community pharmacy sector remains an attractive and viable career path,' he said.

Baseline funding needs to be reset

Alastair Buxton, director of NHS services at Community Pharmacy England (CPE), told The Pharmacist that 'persistent' staffing pressures and 'morale at an all-time low' were 'pushing businesses to the brink and forcing professionals who love working with patients to consider leaving the sector altogether'.

He cited CPE's 2024 Staffing and Morale Report which he said showed 'there are simply not enough pharmacists or wider pharmacy team members', which was having 'a significant impact on their workload as well as their mental health and wellbeing'.

The sector's baseline funding needed to be 'appropriately reset' to allow community pharmacy employers to recruit and retain pharmacists and other staff members, Mr Buxton said.

'If the government truly wants to meet is healthcare ambitions around prevention, it must safeguard the pharmacy workforce,' he added.

The president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS), professor Claire Anderson, commented that the survey results 'underline the urgent need for sustained investment in community pharmacy and action to address workforce pressures'.

A spokesperson for the Company Chemists' Association (CCA) also said that increased funding could help solve some of the pressures on the sector.

They said: 'It's naturally concerning that pharmacists are unsure of their future in community settings.

'Whilst the reasons for leaving will be unique to each person, it is likely that increased demands, and reduced resource levels have meant that many pharmacists experience considerable pressure at work.

'To resolve this, the sector needs the funding necessary to allow it to provide the additional resource required to deliver the ever-growing volume of medicines being prescribed in primary care.'

And to address the shortfall of pharmacists in the sector, the upcoming NHS workforce plan 'must be matched with tangible actions', they added.

Prescribing plan 'key' to future of community pharmacy

The CCA also stressed that the community pharmacy sector needed a clear vision for how it would be used in the future.

In particular, an independent prescribing (IP) roadmap was 'key', the spokesperson said.

'Despite being a generational opportunity, there seem to be no concrete plans to integrate IP into existing or new services. If independent prescribing is not harnessed from day one there is a very real risk that these vital skills will deteriorate.

'The potential future of the sector is exciting, delivering new clinical care to patients in the community. We need investment and concrete plans, to allow us to deliver for patients and the NHS,' the CCA spokesperson said.

The CCA has previously raised concerns that a viable commissioned community pharmacy prescribing service might not be ready by 2026, when all new pharmacists will qualify as prescribers.

In response, a Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spokesperson said: 'Community pharmacy has a vital role to play as we shift the focus of the NHS out of hospitals and into the community, through our 10 Year Health Plan.

'Unfortunately, we inherited a system that has been neglected for too long and isn’t supporting the pharmacists we need to deliver for patients at a local level.

'We will work with the sector, making better use of the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, to build a service fit for the future.'