Most of us are aware of the impact of having pharmacy expertise within our practice and network teams but in many areas, the continuing issue of sourcing (and retaining) pharmacists is proving to be a very challenge. In this week’s episode, we meet Holly Laurence and Ruhina Kassam from Clinical Pharmacist Solutions (CPS), an award-winning training, recruitment and clinical services provider that specialise in providing much-needed, skilled pharmacy resources to practices and primary care networks. Holly and Ruhina talk to Ben about the problem of sourcing staff, why it can be so difficult to hold on to good pharmacists, what we can be doing to incentivise potential new pharmacy staff (and hold onto them), and what CPS can offer by way of support.
Introduction (9 secs)
Meeting Holly, Head of Primary Care Support (26 secs)
…and Service Manager Ruhina (1 min 10 secs)
Is recruitment of Clinical Pharmacists a widespread problem, generally? And if so, why? (1 min 29 secs)
Working out what you want from your pharmacist (3 mins 29 secs)
Setting up dedicated support networks (4 mins 51 secs)
Expectations of salary (5 mins 30 secs)
Handling pay scales (6 mins 41 secs)
Meeting pharmacist expectations (7 mins 20 secs)
Maintaining retention (8 mins 2 secs)
Working within a multi practice network? (8 mins 39 secs)
Holly’s role and how she can ease the burden of recruitment on primary care staff (9 mins 36 secs)
Access and availability of pharmacists (11 mins 11 secs)
The CPS training programme (12 mins 8 secs)
Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) assessment (14 mins 38 secs)
What else do CPS offer by way of support to practices (15 mins 10 secs)
Slotting in alongside the national pharmacy training programme (16 mins 9 secs)
Pricing schedules (16 mins 45 secs)
Getting in touch (17 mins 41 secs)
If you’d like further information please check out the CPS website or their LinkedIn page here.