Are pharmacists worth the investment in their training and the ongoing costs?

Aims: The aims were to identify the costs of investing in training pharmacists, estimate the impact on unit costs of a pharmacist of including the equivalent annual cost of this investment and to investigate the impact of allowing for post-retirement employment on estimates.

Design: Initial investment cost of training pharmacists (tuition, infrastructure support, clinical placements and living expenses) were identified through a variety of sources. The duration and distribution of the expected working life of a pharmacist, estimated using data from the pharmacy workforce census conducted by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain was used to annuitise the investment costs. Information about salaries, oncosts, overheads and working patterns were used to estimate the unit costs of a hospital and community pharmacist.

Results: There is nearly a 14 per cent increase in the unit costs of both a hospital and a community pharmacist. Despite a significant increase in the average working life, particularly of a female pharmacist when including those past the age of retirement, the overall annual unit cost decreased by only 0.4%.

Conclusions: It is important to allow for the investment costs of training when evaluating the resource implications of changes in skill mix. The method of measuring the working life of a professional up to the age of retirement excluding those past retirement age is sufficient for most purposes.

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