Has the £25 barrier been broken?

Ever since the fallow year of 2000, locum pharmacists have come up against a virtual glass ceiling when negotiating rates. The ceiling was £25 per hour an although some locums manged to negotiate slightly highly hourly fee’s for last minute bookings, most resorted to travel time to increase their income.

2008 has been different. We have been able to negotiate rates of £27, £30 and even £40 for our locums on numerous occasions. Why have things changed? I believe there’s a couple of main reasons.

Firstly everyone (Even locum coordinators) understands that in the present economic climate, things are tough and they expect goods and services to cost more. In addition there is no doubt that the increased demand on pharmacists time by additional services and 100 hour pharmacies has made a commodity that is in short supply, i.e. good quality locum pharmacists, even more in demand.

Whatever the reason we believe that these increased rates are here to stay so don’t fall for the usual attempt by the multiples, come the end of August to succeed. Demand that the increased rates remain and help yourself ease the pain of the credit crunch.

Shaun is a Director of PL-UK Ltd – a respected provider of pharmacy jobs, both permanent and locum.

Bristol area

We have loads of dates in the Bristol area. Please call Dee on 01172309955 if you have any free dates. We are also offering a £100 bonus for locums who introduce friends/acquaintances to PL-UK payable after the friend has completed five bookings with PL-UK.

Shaun

Prison Service

Stacks of work coming in every day. For jobs in the North call Linda on 01677 424215 for South call Dee on 01172309955

York

Locum pharmacist required to work in newly refurbished store in York on Monday 4th and Tuesday 5th August. Excellent rates on offer. Call Shaun or Linda for more details 01677 424215

Shaun

10 SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL LOCUMING

For those of you who are new to this locuming game why not download a free copy of our eBook “10 SECRETS TO SUCCESSFUL LOCUMING” please visit out homepage at www.pluk.co.uk

North Yorkshire/Durham/Teeside

£25+2 available all next week across Durham, Teeside and North Yorkshire. Call Lynne or Linda for more details 01677 424215

Southampton

Pharmacist and pharmacy technician required for a new privately run hospital in Southamton. Due to open in September the hospital is looking for clinically focused individuals to join their multi-disciplinary team. Excellent terms and conditions on offer.

Please call Shaun for more details 01677 424204

Plymouth

We are on the look-out for a locum pharmacists to work in an NHS Treatment Centre in Plymouth. Working closely with the NHS, the centre is run by Partnership Health Group who have a number of similar centres across the UK

The centre is looking for a permanent pharmacy manager but also a locum to hold the fort until a permanent replacement is found. Excellent remuneration and conditions on offer please call Shaun on 01677 424204 for more information.

The ideal candidate would have hospital experience but not worked for the NHS in the last 6 months, be confortable working as part of a multi disciplinary team and able to work as a locum for 6-8 weeks.

Professional?

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few days. I’ve been involved in the recruitment of a new headmaster for our local primary school in my role as parent governor and recruitment “expert” and the whole process has really made me think about the professionalism of some of the pharmacists I come across.

I would start by saying that 90% of the pharmacists I come in to contact with are highly dedicated, caring, professionals. However there is an increasingly significant proportion of pharmacists who’s professionalism I would question. Examples of the people in question are those locums who call at 9.30am every morning looking for work. They classically live 1 hour from the booking but take 2 hours to get there and want to be paid from 9am. Others arrive to immediately sit down with their laptops to watch DVD’s telling staff to “bring the work to me as I can’t be bothered to move” Others don’t want to fill in application forms or supply references as the “can’t be bothered!” Some people may see this as their prerogativee. I see it as arrogant and unprofessional

In contrast to this 10% of locums all four candidates I helped interview for the headship were dedicated professionals who earn a lot less than many of the locums mentioned above. They looked professional, behaved professionally and expected potential employees to  enquire in to their background in terms of CRB checks and references as they are being asked to take a position of responsibility. What does it say about the profession of pharmacy that the government doesn’t deem our profession important enough to need a CRB check?

At PL-UK I’m confident that our processes wheedle out the 10% of locums I’m talking about and I’m immensely proud of the locums we supply to contractors. However,  I’d love to think that the next time  I interview for a  new headteacher (I hope not for many years) I could honestly say that the pharmacy profession match these teachers in terms of dedication, commitment and professionalism.

Shaun

New Coordinator for the South

I’m absolutely delighted to announce that we have appointed a new locum coordinator to support our locum pharmacists in the South of England.

Dee Higgins Joins us from Lloyds Pharmacy where she used to work as a locum coordinator so it’s a real poacher turner game keeper situation!!

We have had dealings with Dee for about 18 months and I’ve got to say she was the most organised and professional coordinator we dealt with within Lloyds. I’ve had my eye on recruiting her for ages so I’m dead chuffed she joined us. Dee can be contacted on 0117 230 9955

Go on give her a call

Dee