Pharmacy Daily | Few would recommend pharmacy

POOR pay, stress and a lack of support are among the factors pushing pharmacists out of the profession, Professional Pharmacists Australia's (PPA's) 2021 Community and Hospital Pharmacists Remuneration Report, reveals.

The report found the median annual salary for hospital pharmacists was $100,000, with the average pharmacist earning $92,500.

However, the PPA noted hospital pharmacists tended to be paid more whether employed under an annual salary arrangement or hourly wage arrangement.

"This is despite the distribution of respondents across pharmacist classifications trending towards lower levels of responsibility for hospital pharmacists and higher for community pharmacists," the union said.

Data from the union's annual survey found that less than a third of community pharmacists would recommend pursuing a career in the profession, while a similar number of pharmacists employed by discount chains reported their intention to leave pharmacy within the next five years.

The report found that pharmacists who worked for National Pharmacies were the least likely to report that they were planning to leave the profession (6.3%), while 33.3% of those employed by Chemist Warehouse said they were thinking of abandoning their career.

While workplace stress was cited as the main cause of unhappiness across community pharmacy, it was significantly higher for those working for discounters (73%) than their peers employed by banner group stores (55%).

Discount pharmacy employees were also more likely to report that poor pay was a factor in their professional unhappiness (69%) compared to (46%) for banner group employees.

The report also noted that the prevalence of prescription-based key performance indicators was higher among discounters (32%) than banner groups (17%), with 35% of Chemist Warehouse employees reporting they worked to script targets, while 32% of Priceline Pharmacy pharmacists said they had similar targets.