Locums have reported an increase in community pharmacy contractors changing their terms after the contract has been agreed, the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) has said.

And it has advised locums to screenshot their contract so that they have a record of what has been agreed.

Paul Day, PDA director, told The Pharmacist that the issue was a trend, ‘not just one off cases’, and did ‘not seem to be limited to a particular employer or type of employer’.

'This is a new phenomenon and the number of reported cases continues to grow,' he said.

And he suggested that technological changes might have enabled the behaviour.

'It would seem that developments in the locum booking applications have allowed these post-agreement changes to be made,' Mr Day told The Pharmacist.

In one recent example, the timings of the shift were changed after it had been agreed, resulting in the locum being ‘publicly berated’ for being ‘late’, despite arriving at the agreed time, the PDA said.

In another, a pharmacist did not take a break since their agreed shift did not include one. But afterwards, the online system was changed ‘to look like an unpaid break of 30 minutes was in the agreement’, and this time was deducted from the locum’s fees, the PDA reported.

Another recent occurrence involved a community pharmacy telling the locum ‘at short notice’ that it would no longer pay the agreed hourly rate.

‘The business then advertised the shift again claiming a booked locum was unwell and as they were unable to secure a locum for the advertised rate before the shift patients and the local community were faced with a pharmacy that was closed,’ the PDA said.

‘Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents and PDA members are reporting an increase in this sort of unethical behaviour,’ the PDA commented.

And it encouraged locums ‘to take a screenshot as evidence of every booking they make in case they need to prove that the business has unilaterally altered the arrangement later’.

It said it was ‘disappointed that this is necessary’, but ‘unfortunately this reflects the poor business behaviours being seen on occasions in community pharmacy’.