15,000 PHARMACISTS ARE NEEDED IN FRANCE TO FILL THE GAP

Mon 28 November 2022:

France is facing a pharmacist shortage and is urgently seeking 15,000 new recruits, according to the head of the country’s pharmacy federation on Sunday.

The alarm was sounded by Philippe Besset, president of the Fédération des Syndicats Pharmaceutiques de France (FSPF), France’s pharmacist union, who took to French radio Franceinfo to raise his concerns.

“No regions are spared by the phenomenon. When you crunch the numbers, roughly two thirds of all dispensaries have empty positions,” Mr Besset said.

According to Philippe Bresset, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France (FSPF), two-thirds of pharmacies in France face staff shortages.

He stated that the void cannot be filled because there are no new replacements for retired pharmacists.

While the total number of pharmacists has increased 2.8% over the last ten years – to 74,034 in 2022 according to figures provided by the France’s Ordre des pharmaciens regulating body – the number of pharmacists within dispensaries has steadily declined.

Aurélien Filoche, director of OuiPharma, a platform presenting the details of up-for-sale dispensaries, said that more than 3,000 are listed for sale every year but only half of them are actually sold.

Mr Filoche said some dispensaries have been listed on the website for five years, or since the company was founded in 2016. He said 332 dispensaries have been sold since 2021 – or 23% of the market – but the figure is still low enough for the shortage to continue.

Professionals told The Connexion they feared the shortage might climb higher, as more than 5,000 pharmacists were already at retirement age, and that pharmaceutical students would only meet half of the total demand.

Meanwhile, local media reported a shortage of 1,100 students in pharmacy faculties across the country.

Furthermore, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, hospitals are experiencing a shortage of doctors and nurses, and pharmacies are having difficulty supplying medicines.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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