Why Is It So Hard to Recruit a Permanent Pharmacist Right Now?

Recruiting a permanent pharmacist has become a serious challenge for many community pharmacies and primary care providers. Vacancies can stay open for months, locum cover can be hard to secure, and the team left behind often has to absorb extra work while recruitment continues.

The problem is not simply that employers are writing poor job adverts. Demand for pharmacy services has grown, while the pool of pharmacists available to take permanent roles is under pressure. In a tight labour market, relying on recruitment alone is rarely enough. Employers also need to retain the people they have and build future capability within their teams.

This article looks at the pressures behind the shortage, what the “54% struggling to recruit” figure can—and cannot—tell us, and how apprenticeships can form part of a practical staffing plan.

What does “54% struggling to recruit” tell us?

The figure “54% struggling to recruit” is a useful way to describe the scale of concern when it comes from a clearly identified survey. But a percentage without its source, survey date and respondent group is incomplete. It matters whether the respondents were pharmacy owners, all healthcare employers, or a particular region—and whether they reported difficulty filling any role or specifically a permanent pharmacist post.

Before using the figure in a business case or article, check:

• Who responded? For example, community pharmacy owners or a broader group of healthcare employers.
• When was the survey conducted? Recruitment conditions can change, so an older result may not describe today’s market.
• What was the denominator? Was 54% of all respondents struggling, or only those who had tried to recruit?
• What did “struggling” mean? Difficulty attracting applicants is different from having an unfilled role after several months.

Used with that context, “54% struggling to recruit” can be a strong headline statistic. Without it, it risks giving readers a precise number with no reliable way to interpret it. The underlying issue, however, is clear to many employers: finding a permanent pharmacist who is available, suitably experienced and willing to take the role can be difficult.

Pharmacy First has added work in primary care

In England, the Pharmacy First service gives community pharmacies a greater role in managing certain common conditions and providing treatment where appropriate. That creates new opportunities for patients to access care, but it also brings additional clinical work for pharmacy teams.

Each consultation takes time. Staff need to assess the patient, decide whether the service is appropriate, provide advice or treatment within the relevant pathway, record the consultation and refer on when necessary. These tasks sit alongside dispensing, medicines advice, service delivery and the day-to-day demands of running a pharmacy.

The impact varies from one pharmacy to another. It depends on local demand, staffing, service setup and how work is organised. But where Pharmacy First activity increases without enough capacity in the team, the pressure can show up in familiar ways:

• Pharmacists have less protected time for clinical work.
• Other team members take on extra tasks to keep the dispensary moving.
• Breaks, training and routine management work become harder to fit into the day.
• Employers rely more heavily on locums or ask existing staff to cover additional shifts.

That last point matters for recruitment. A candidate considering a permanent role will look at more than the salary. They will want to know what a normal day looks like, how the workload is managed, and whether the team has enough support to deliver the service safely and sustainably.

Workforce pressure is about capacity, not just headcount

Employers often describe the problem as a shortage of pharmacists. But national headcount alone does not explain how easy it is to fill a vacancy in a particular location. A pharmacist may be registered but not seeking a community role, may work part time, or may live too far away to make a vacancy practical.

For that reason, claims that workforce numbers are falling need careful wording. Be clear about the measure and period: are you describing the number of pharmacists, full-time equivalent posts, vacancies, or the availability of staff in community pharmacy? Those measures do not mean the same thing.

What many employers experience is a squeeze on usable capacity. Community pharmacies need pharmacists to cover opening hours, clinical services, leave and unexpected absence. When the local pool of people seeking permanent roles is small, even a modest staffing gap can create a disproportionate effect.

This is why workforce data should be checked against a date and a denominator before it is used. For current national context, consult the latest NHS workforce and pharmacy statistics, and check the relevant professional register data. For a local hiring decision, track your own vacancy duration, applicant numbers, offer acceptance rate and reliance on temporary cover.

Why recruitment-only strategies fail in a tight labour market

When a vacancy appears, the obvious response is to advertise it. That remains necessary—but in a tight labour market, it is not a complete workforce strategy. If several employers are competing for the same small group of candidates, posting the same advert in more places may not create more pharmacists.

Recruitment-only approaches also leave the existing team exposed. If experienced staff repeatedly cover vacant shifts, workload rises and retention can suffer. An employer may fill one role, only to lose another person who has been carrying too much for too long.

Common problems include:

• Slow hiring processes: Delayed decisions can cost employers candidates who are considering several offers.
• Unclear role expectations: Vague promises of “career progression” do not tell a candidate what they will do, learn or be paid to do.
• Limited flexibility: Rigid hours or little control over rotas can make a role unsuitable even when the location and salary are attractive.
• Weak onboarding: A new pharmacist who receives little support may not stay long enough to solve the staffing problem.
• Over-reliance on locums: Temporary cover can protect services in the short term, but it does not create a stable, familiar team.

None of this means employers should stop recruiting. It means recruitment needs to sit alongside retention, workload planning and workforce development. A good vacancy process should explain the real working pattern, the support available, the clinical responsibilities and the development route—not just list a pay range and pharmacy technician training costs ask for applications.

Apprenticeships can create a staffing pipeline

Apprenticeships cannot produce a qualified pharmacist overnight, and they should never be presented as a cheap substitute for experienced staff. They are a planned way to develop people over time, combining paid work with structured learning and support.

For pharmacy employers, a well-designed apprenticeship programme can help build capability from within the team. Depending on the role, the programme and the learner’s eligibility, apprenticeships may support people to develop pharmacy skills and progress into more responsible work. That can strengthen the wider team and give employees a clearer reason to stay and grow.

To be precise, an apprenticeship does not automatically solve a pharmacist vacancy. Different programmes lead to different qualifications and roles. Employers should check the course outcome, entry requirements, funding rules and supervision needs before deciding what a programme can contribute to their workforce plan.

Tend Training’s pharmacy apprenticeship training category is a useful starting point for employers exploring pharmacy apprenticeship options. Review the available programmes with the provider and confirm which roles and learning outcomes fit your needs.

What a practical apprenticeship pipeline looks like week to week

“Build a pipeline” can sound abstract. In practice, it means making specific choices about who you will develop, what work they will learn, and who will support them. For example:

1. Map the work: Identify recurring tasks and skills the pharmacy needs, rather than choosing a course because it sounds broadly relevant.
2. Choose the right learner and programme: Match the employee’s role, experience and ambitions to the qualification and its entry requirements.
3. Protect learning time: Set a realistic weekly plan for study, workplace learning and supervision. Do not assume the learner can complete everything around an unchanged workload.
4. Assign a workplace mentor: Name the person who will check progress, answer questions and help the learner apply training safely.
5. Review progress regularly: Hold short, planned check-ins and address missed learning time before it becomes a larger problem.
6. Plan the next role: Explain what responsibilities or opportunities may follow completion, while being honest about what is and is not guaranteed.

This approach creates value before a learner qualifies: the employee develops useful skills, the employer improves capability in defined areas, and the team can see a credible route for progression. The benefits depend on the programme and the support provided; apprenticeship enrolment by itself is not a staffing plan.

Build a workforce plan around the rota

In pharmacy, staffing problems become visible on the rota. A vacancy may mean a pharmacist covers extra hours, a manager struggles to approve leave, or clinical services compete with essential dispensing work. A workable plan starts with those real pressure points.

Pressure Short-term response Longer-term action Permanent pharmacist vacancy Use safe, planned cover and keep candidates updated. Review the role, hours, location, pay and hiring process. Growing service workload Review the daily allocation of clinical and dispensary work. Plan staffing capacity around expected service demand. Repeated pressure on existing staff Track extra shifts, missed breaks and leave constraints. Address retention, workload and development—not only vacancies. Skills gaps in the wider team Identify tasks that can be supported by trained team members. Consider a suitable apprenticeship with protected learning and mentoring.

Review the plan monthly. Track the number of permanent pharmacist vacancies, how long they remain open, the number of suitable applicants, offer acceptance and staff turnover. Add local indicators such as locum shifts and overtime. Those measures will show whether a recruitment campaign is working—or whether the role, rota or workload needs attention.

Conclusion: recruitment needs more than another advert

It is hard to recruit a permanent pharmacist because demand for pharmacy services has grown while the supply of candidates willing and able to take particular roles remains constrained. Pharmacy First has added clinical activity for many community pharmacy teams, and local employers often have to compete for a limited pool of available staff.

In a tight labour market, recruitment still matters, but it cannot carry the whole workforce plan. Employers need to make roles workable, support and retain existing staff, and develop capability over time. Apprenticeships can contribute to that effort when the programme matches a real business need and the learner receives protected time, supervision and a clear development route.

Start with the rota, measure the recruitment problem accurately, and build a plan that combines hiring with retention and training. That is more likely to create a stable team than relying on a job advert to solve a structural staffing challenge.