The differences between community and clinical pharmacy locum pharmacy jobs
Community pharmacy is one of the pillars of the care system in the UK, mostly known for dispensing medicine. It is also a mainstay on most high streets and supermarkets.
Community pharmacy is often seen as a more retail environment, with healthcare professionals providing healthcare services, usually the most accessible for patients to get advice on medicines.
It works on what is essentially a contractor model, similar to other healthcare providers like general practice. Usually owned by sole traders, small multiples and bigger organisations.
Clinical pharmacy involves more of a patient care driven use of medications, often attributed to pharmacists working along side a GP team to make sure your medicines are correct and appropriate.
Locum pharmacy jobs – What’s changed in community pharmacy?
Locum Pharmacy jobs for the most part rely heavily on community pharmacy, certainly through agencies like Team Locum 80 – 90% of the work stemming from the community side of pharmacy.
So its of no surprise how important community pharmacy was throughout the pandemic, with GP’s across the country closing, a lot of pharmacies felt the brunt. In a way this changed the publics perspective of pharmacy, viewing it as an alternative to calling and booking an appointment in with the GP.
The service side of community pharmacy has become more prevalent throughout the years, with a focus on services such as blood pressure checks and minor ailments. This has also been something brought on due to lack of funding within the healthcare industry, so focusing on services that bring in a revenue stream has become an essential part of community pharmacy.
These things combined have caused the community pharmacy role and therefor locum pharmacy jobs as a whole to have a more clinical feel and can certainly add to the strain and pressure that pharmacies endure on a day to day basis.
