Training cuts could force pharmacy students to leave Scotland

They were promoted as the solution to the current GP shortage. Patients struggling to get doctors’ appointments could visit high-street pharmacies to obtain basic treatments over the counter and in record time, we were promised.

However, a move is being carried out behind the scenes to cut the number of new pharmacy graduates qualifying. And industry insiders fear this will only exacerbate the current NHS crisis – and lead to less access to high-street chemist shops.

Almost 60 qualifying places for pharmacy graduates have been dropped from necessary pre-registration qualifying year courses by the Scottish Government’s national education programme. Pharmacy graduates need to complete the courses to register and practise.

It’s a swingeing cut of 20% from last year’s 277 places for a health profession that is already officially listed by the UK Government as a “shortage occupation”.

The news was broken to students in devastating rejection emails which arrived recently as they were working towards their final degree exams.

It comes as Scotland’s community pharmacies are already having to cut hours to share the workforce around, industry insiders say.

“This forces patients to drive for miles to find one that’s open with a duty pharmacist to dispense prescriptions,” said a community pharmacist with branches in central Scotland.

“We are talking about many elderly patients or their carers, who are already under pressure.

“Currently we are so short of pharmacists that locums are being flown in from Greece and Malta to cover shortages to keep some community pharmacies open.”

The Scottish Government is spending £30 million a year on its Pharmacy First campaign to direct patients to community pharmacies.

Pharmacists can now carry out a raft of care including prescribing antibiotics for throat and urinary tract infections, emergency contraception and help quitting smoking.

Their additional workload and responsibility has come as Scotland’s GP numbers have fallen by 11% in almost 10 years.

The population growth along with the rising number of elderly patients needing drugs for heart disease, high blood pressure and other health problems has added to Scotland’s NHS care and treatment.

The move to cut pharmacy numbers is causing distress among final-year pharmacy students at Strathclyde and Robert Gordon universities.

Many are making plans to leave Scotland and try to get pre-registration posts elsewhere in the UK.

Others are considering emigrating to Australia, New Zealand or Canada to continue their careers.

They have been told that training numbers were cut because NHS Education Scotland “needed to work within the resources available”.

Abbie Cockburn, 21, from Falkirk, a Strathclyde University student, said it came at the worst possible time for her and others.

“I am left disappointed and anxious for the future,” she said. “The news arrived mid-January when we were all under pressure to get the best degree possible, but I had to stay focused during assignments, placements, exams, and a dissertation, with no further training at the end of it.

“Like many others, I worked hard to get into my pharmacy degree course, continued all through my studies and exams, and even secured a job in a pharmacy with an offer of a sponsored pre-registration year job.

“Graduates used to be able to complete the vital registration year if they got a good pharmacy to sponsor and oversee that training year before being registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council – but that route was also stopped recently.

“We are all told that the country is short of pharmacists, so cutting numbers does not make sense.

“I can either hold on and try to get a place next year against competition from 2026 graduates, try to find a training place in England, or emigrate.”

Professional organisation the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA) Scotland says this is the worst possible time to cut back on healthcare. Head of policy Maurice Hickey said: “NHS Scotland reports there are not enough pharmacists and is important to note that they are already on the government’s shortage occupation list.

“Cutting back on the numbers able complete training and register could lead to closures of some pharmacies, and certainly the hours patients can access one. The PDA and others have been approached by final-year students who are now worried and anxious that they will be able to qualify. If they find a place in England or emigrate overseas to, say, Australia, most will probably settle and not return.”

He added that huge sums have already been spent from the public purse in education costs to take students through university courses.

“It costs Scottish taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds to get each student to pharmacy degree level,” he said. “There seems little forward planning to educate, train and retain pharmacists when their role in the NHS treatment has never been greater. Ultimately it’s the patients who will pay this price and in more than one way.

“Someone in the government has taken their eye off the ball and let these students down badly.”

Scotland’s population has grown in the past eight years, and the need for high-street pharmacies with it.

The demands of keeping the country’s elderly healthy with prescription drugs for heart, blood pressure and cancer have never been higher.

But according to official figures published by the General Pharmacy Council, branch numbers have not.

The Pharmaceutical Journal reports that the 1,292 pharmacies on the register since December 2017 had not increased by 2024.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s shadow health secretary, says she has been approached by pharmacy students without training places on graduation. She said: “The SNP’s short-sighted decision to cut pharmacist training places is just the latest example of its damaging incompetence and woeful workforce planning.

“Scottish students are spending years studying and Scottish taxpayers are funding it only to be told there are no jobs here for them. Pharmacists play a crucial role in our primary care system, and it is utterly absurd that Scotland is paying to train pharmacists only to send them to work elsewhere.”

Dr Chris Black, deputy chairman of the BMA Scottish general practitioners committee, said: “Pharmacists working in community pharmacies, and those who work directly in GP surgeries and in health boards, play an important role in helping reduce GP workloads and enable doctors to spend more time with patients.”

The Scottish Government said: “Since 2018, the Scottish Government has extended the number of NHS Education Scotland-funded Foundation Training Year places – from 170, to 220 in 2025-2026. We are aware of the recent increase in undergraduate pharmacy students and are working with partners to explore what can be done to try and accommodate this increase, however there are several complexities that need to be resolved such as the allocation of trainees to training providers to meet the requirements of the pharmacy regulator.

“The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has established a National Pharmacy Workforce Forum which will provide recommendations on the pharmacy workforce, including Foundation Training Year places.”