Frustrated pharmacist!

We received a very interesting email on Wednesday from a stressed out, under pressure area coordinator for a large multiple:

“After my current review there are changes which are to be implemented into my area , these changes are below.

 Weekday Rates : Will be set at £21.50

 Weekend Rates : Will be set at £24

.Mileage : Will be set at 25ppm. Please be aware that the first 40 miles of the journey will not be paid.

 Train / Taxi : If a receipt is not received within 2 working days of the date worked then ****** is not accountable to pay for the journey. Please can you make sure that this is cascaded down to your locums as I will now be taking a hard line with them as my job is now on the line If I cannot bring the budget back into line.

 

Mobile Phones : Any locum found using a mobile phone in the Dispensary will be given one warning and then if it happens again I will refuse to use them in my area. Its not professional and the business of ****** requires full professionalism.”

This may come as no surprise to most of you but it does demonstrate that the area coordinators you deal with when you go direct are incentivised to pay you as little as possible and in the case of of claiming train and taxi expenses, have systems in place to try and stop you being reimbursed at all!

I know I have a vested interest in this, but to me it really is just common sense; If you go direct to a company you have little or no bargaining power, especially if you want to book well ahead. You really are just a RPSGB number as the email from ****** says “Weekday Rates : Will be set at £21.50″  – What if that locum performs 20 MUR’s? what if they have a clinical diploma? What if they dispense 1000 items or 50? Should all locums be paid the same? Of course they should if you just look at them as a number. After all, you only need a pharmacist to trade.

However when you start to think of locums as clinical professionals it becomes abundantly clear that you can’t “set the rates” you need to take into account the skills of the individual and the work they will undertake.

This, treating locums as numbers frustrates the hell out of me. I know that the vast majority of locums provide an excellent service and there’s a pretty good argument that they have to and much more than employed pharmacists. After all, I don’t know of one pharmacist in the 15 years since I qualified who was sacked for being a bad pharmacist and I can tell you, I’ve worked with a few who should have been. However as a locum you live or die by the service you provide. If they don’t like you they won’t book you.

The converse argument goes for locums who work through agencies. If we don’t get the rates for our locums they will go elsewhere!

It’s tricky JOB sometimes at PL-UK but a really rewarding one when we allow our locums to earn the remuneration they deserve and overcome these bully-boy, tactics of the “big boys”.

PS TOP TIP: If a company tries to reduce your rate or “set” a rate for all shops use your professional prerogative to tell them “thanks, but no thanks” and go elsewhere.