Locum advice

[galen]

I would appreciate any help.

I am a former community pharmacist proprietor but have done no pharmacy work for the last 10 years. However I have kept up my active registration and have attendes CPD lectures. I now wish to return to community pharmacy as a locum from next April to help me through my retirement years.

What do I need to do to update myself with courses, computers etc to enable me to return to practice as a part-time locum pharmacist with reasonable expectations of work and, if I can, how much should I expect to earn working in a moderately busy pharmacy? I would be available for block bookings.

[johnep]

Start off by working in a large pharmacy with perhaps 2-3 pharmacists. You will be confined to checking at first probably and perhaps some counselling.

BTC have such pharmacies in city centres.

Otherwise contact a few of your local pharmacists and offer to work FOC for a couple of weeks. Lloyds also have a training scheme for overseas pharmacists which could be applicable to you.

good luck, I returned to community after 30 years in industry. It was a very steep learning curve but has meant a very comfortable retirement. Most weeks I try to work just a cople of days but its three days this week.

Patterns of trade vary over the country but saturdays usually quiet.

A 100 hour supermarket is often very quiet on the early morning or late shift.

Sunday rotas can be busy but frequently I dispense only one or two scripts.
johnep

[Pharmanaut]

Originally Posted by johnep

Start off by working in a large pharmacy with perhaps 2-3 pharmacists. You will be confined to checking at first probably and perhaps some counselling.

BTC have such pharmacies in city centres.

Otherwise contact a few of your local pharmacists and offer to work FOC for a couple of weeks. Lloyds also have a training scheme for overseas pharmacists which could be applicable to you.

good luck, I returned to community after 30 years in industry. It was a very steep learning curve but has meant a very comfortable retirement. Most weeks I try to work just a cople of days but its three days this week.

Patterns of trade vary over the country but saturdays usually quiet.

A 100 hour supermarket is often very quiet on the early morning or late shift.

Sunday rotas can be busy but frequently I dispense only one or two scripts.
johnep

Also get to know the tariff again, especially the Nurse Prescribing Minefield.
Welcome back, and good luck.

[galen]

Thanks for the advice - its seems sensible and almost painless.

I am reading on the Forum about MUR accreditation, repeat prescribing etc. Do I need to do these now or after I start. And has anyone been on the cppe Return to Practice course? Apparently they are asking me to pay for it - about £600 as I live outside their normal jurisdiction. If so is it worth it, and what does it involve?
Believe it or not I am worried about dispensing my first script and this is from someone who used to churn them out without a care in the world responsibly though!

[johnep]

You definitely need to work alongside someone. Your local branch should be able to help.

MUR accreditation can be done on various courses once you have a bit of experience.

Repeat Scripts these days are usually done in number of stages.

1) Labels prepared.

2) Items dispensed.

3) Script checked (clinical queries can be done at this stage)

4) Checked script then bagged and put on shelf. Lloyds tend to put script in card file with shelf ref number on it. These helps finding scripts.

In a large pharmacy four different people could be involved with just pharmacist involvement at stage 3.
johnep

[galen]

Johnep you are being very helpful.

It appears one route back is:

1. Get work in a large pharmacy for at least a month,
2. If possible ask BTC/Lloyds to send me on a suitable course perhaps prior to work rather than the cppe course

Any ideas of the best locum agency covering the NW England or would it be preferable to go direct to the main pharmacy chains?

[Zoggite]

Originally Posted by galen

the cppe[...] I live outside their normal jurisdiction.

What do you mean? Wales? Scotland? Isle of Man? Mars?

[galen]

It may as well be Mars - Isle of Man but we do have travel links to the rest of the world so I would be happy to do that. Job opportubnities on the island are almost all Lloyds.

[johnep]

Oh dear you are not Alan are you?
johnep

[galen]

No I am not