Horray for Pharmacists!

We had recently noticed a surge of activity in Pharmacy Recruitment and this is one of the reasons why -

From 1st November 2008, the HSE will restore the mark-up it pays to Pharmacists from 8% to the previous rate of 17.66%. On September 11th the High Court found that the HSE was in breach of its contract with Pharmacists when it decided to reduce payments for the provision of drugs and services under the medical card scheme. The HSE was orded to pay the costs in the case. In response to the court ruling and in a major climb-down, the HSE announce on the 14th October that it had decided to restore the original mark-up arrangements from the beginning of November.

“In compliance with a recent High Court judgement, the wholesale mark-up the HSE pays to pharmacies for medicines supplied through the various medical card schmes will be increased on November 1st from 8 per cent to 17.66%”, it said.

The recent economic downturn hit early and hard for Pharmacists.  The HSE decision to reduce drug payments had a massive effect on Pharmacist Jobs.  It is only now, months later, that we are beginning to see the first signs of a recovery in the Pharmacy jobs market.

The news is not all good for Pharmacists though.  Salaries on offer are now roughly 10% less than they were before.

From a recruitment perspective we saw some recruitment agencies that had specialised in Pharmacist jobs in serious trouble for a while.

The Pharmacist jobs that are trickling onto the market at the moment tend to be senior positions.  Supervising Pharmacists have to be replaced when they leave their jobs.  We have also seen hospital Pharmacist positions poke their head over the HSE barricades to bring in new Pharmacists.

The private Hospital Pharmacist market, unhampered by HSE restrictions has seen Pharmacist Jobs created, but not in the numbers that would signal a full return to a healthy jobs market.

The market has not yet recovered for Pharmacy Technicians, but Pharmacy technicians were hardest hit with job losses and it would be expected that their recovery would be slowest.

Locum Pharmacist jobs suffered a bit of a blip, but it is now a good time to be working as a locum.  Pharmacy bosses are still holding back on hiring full time Pharmacists until the dust has settled further.  This gives rise to more Locum Pharmacist jobs becoming available as owners are slow to replace full time staff at present.

Given the scaremongering that took place immediately after the HSE announcements, the outlook at the moment is not at all bad! Medical Jobs in general are having a hard time, but much better than other industries.  I’d far rather be a Pharmacist right now than a construction worker!