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Originally Posted by Ray  i totally agree with you about making the law stricter in terms of language requirement, probably 2-3 years minimum experience....etc
what annoys me is the fact that a decent aussie/NZ p'cist can come, locum for couple of months and go back to NZ for few months every year. while an international p'cist, WITH A UK DEGREE, who spent loads of money in the UK for 5 years till qualifying, can not get the FLEXIBLE contract a non-EU member (i.e NZ p'cists) get! anyone on a work permit can not even think to work part time, or anything less than 40 hours/week, while being labelled as a "foreigner i.e even that he has been living in the uk >5 years".
my point is, let's face a fact, BRITISH p'cists can not satisfy the public need. and that's the reason why the rules in terms of language ain't that strcit... playing on "this is all what we can do for now" argument.
for all the great british p'cists around, if you guys complain a lot about the EU/international p'cists, why not you make sure to raise kids that are willing to become p'cists and solve the whole issue.
at the end, they do get the feeling that we are providing our health care services, for people who do not even appreciate that an english p'cist is not willing to relocate to area X which has no pharmacists!
in my last visit to Dubai, 3 years ago, i have seen more british people living + working there than the native people. i even talked to some of my friends there who told me they do apreciate all the developments resulting from foreign investment in their countries...... guess what? i bet non of the british people living there speak arabic (maybe just few words), but people do not make a big deal about it as far as you know your job!
i don't know how we ended up talking about this issue, when the core issue was aussie/NZ p'cists with non UK degree, having privileges to work in the uk, with flexible contracts. |
I think the UK has lost out by cutting its ties with the English speaking pharmacy world. With flexible working arrangements pharmacists from all over the world brought new ideas, their own unique perspective and shared all this freely for a season. Of course some stayed and contributed more but more importantly many went back with their experiences to change practise in their own countries.
The flexible working, by the way, was not necessarily by choice: if your grandfather was born in the UK or if you are a commonwealth citizen and meet some requirements you can get a one off holiday in the UK allowing you to work for up to 12 months and travel the rest of the time. I think this is a good way to show case the British way of life, perhaps these arrangements are coming to an end because Brits are not proud of the way they live now.
When I was a young pharmacist I believed that there should be some sort of international body where pharmacy ideas could cross national boundaries and pharmacists could agree on the direction that the profession should be moving in and although FIP does some good work, they are largely invisible.
Why did Australia and New Zealand have reciprocity, I think (somebody correct me) that twenty odd years ago there was almost universal reciprocity agreements. I guess these two countries had the closest ties and with pharmacy practise moving in the same direction the reciprocity lasted the longest.