I work in community pharmacy at the moment and, well where do I start? The pay is not great, the working conditions stressful and we are very, very short staffed. Apart from that I love my job! I have NVQ level 3 and I'm an Accredited Checking Technician. I'm paid £8.90 an hour. I'm hoping to try for a new job elsewhere and was wondering if other pharmacies are better to work in. What is it like being a hospital technician? I enjoy dispensing, checking, ordering stock, problem-solving etc but I'm finding we're so short-staffed the service we're providing is terrible, customers are always complaining and I don't blame them but we work our socks off from the minute we get in to the minute we go home. Is the grass greener on the other side?!
You could try Hospital, the ranting public are taken out of the equation and you won't be as short staffed that's for sure. I think the pays better for technicians in hospital as well.
i never worked in hospital but i like community. are u working for multiple or independent? from the amount u getting paid i would say multiple, if ya like community n customer based work i would look for decent independent, i get 8.50 an hour and im only a dispenser thats with an independent and when i qualify as tech i will get between 9.75-12 an hour
£9.75-£12 an hour? That's fantastic! I work for a multiple. Dispensers earn about £7 an hour, techs £8 and newly qualified ACT's earn £8.90 an hour. I've looked at working for an independent before because they pay so well but when I went away to do my ACT training I got talking to a lady who used to work for an independent. She said she hated it, that they didn't follow procedures properly like reporting errors and the pharmacists used to self-check. I'm sure all pharmacies are different but it really put me off at the time. I'm re-considering now though. Are the staffing levels good where you work? I work in a very busy pharmacy, we do about 400 items a day which doesn't sound much but we don't have mds and we don't have much of a shop so don't have sales assistants or healthcare assistants. We have to do everything ourselves - dispensing, price checking, sales plans, shelf monitoring, serving on the till, taking in and handing out prescriptions etc. We have one pharmacist, me and two dispensers. We find this is not enough and days pass without me doing any checking because we are too short-staffed for it to work. Some days it's just me and a pharmacist there!! Yet I get grief from the area manager on his once in a blue moon visits because I'm not doing the job I'm paid for. The service we provide is embarrassing, we're offering the repeat prescription service but don't have enough staff for it to work, scripts are never ready on time, customers are always kept waiting. Yet we have so much pressure on us to keep signing these people up, offering murs etc. I'm wondering if hospital pharmacy is a better environment. Dizzyb, are you a dispenser? If so, what do you do in an average day and are the staffing levels good?
we are a busy shop we have a small shop but sell mainly old style sweets, we have 1 shop assistant, 4 dispensers me and an act 1 full time phamacist n double cover 3x a week we do about 400-600rxs a day and have 100 mds people. i use to work for multiple and found that u was a number not a person the area manager wasnt for listening to us even tho we was running on locums, and i was the was 1 of the full timers who every1 come to with queries i was taking work home that a supervisor would have sorted out and getin phone calls on my day off about problems and the methameasure, had no time to do my nvq3 which paided a bit extra so good rid dens to the multiple i do miss the staff as we was like a family but it was just so bad no thanks extra pay or anything so i found this job and off i went just keep ur ear out for a decent paided job and hopefully u will get to do what ur trained for im finally coming to the end of my training
You sound well staffed, we'd be ok if we had 3 dispensers, we struggle on 2. I get phone calls on my days off to and I'm always asked to work extra but I can't because I have children. I've started switching my phone off on the days I don't work!
Yes. Until now they have taken advantage of you to avoid expense of proper staff levels.
You just try to get hold of a member of management on their days off.
johnep
we did have another dispenser but she retired and they replaced her with cleaners lmao it goes tight when people off due to sickness n hols at same time which causes loads of stress as we all have afternoon off but they wont replace her. but johnep right in what he sayin multiples take the mickey n never mind when day off u try gettin hold of them full stop always in meetings or just ignoring u.
Reply With Quote
i do miss the staff as we was like a family but it was just so bad no thanks extra pay or anything so i found this job and off i went just keep ur ear out for a decent paided job and hopefully u will get to do what ur trained for im finally coming to the end of my training
