Plea for More Training Facilities for Pharmacists

As is the case with nurses, there's also a huge shortage of qualified pharmacists in the country and the province, Western Cape Health Minister, Theuns Botha, said tonight in his address at the Western Cape Pharmacy Conference.

Minister Botha said that the South African Pharmacy Council recently conducted a human resource survey and once again identified a shortage of qualified pharmacists. "One reason for this is the shortage of training facilities, resulting in a shortage of trained pharmacists. We are in the process of requesting the National Ministers of Higher Education and Health to investigate the extension of our present training facilities and opening new training schools for this profession."

Minister Botha said that the Western Cape has 2 170 registered pharmacists and 38 interns. Western Cape Government Health employs 360 pharmacists and 23 interns.

In 2012, new legislation will come into play that will make continuous professional development compulsory from 2012.

In line with the above challenge, there is also a huge shortage of pharmacist assistants. In the short-term, the problem will be addressed through pharmacists training 100 learner pharmacist assistants on site with funds from the Extended Public Works Programme.

However, in the long-term, pharmacist assistants will be phased out. "From 2013, we will start training a more specialised mid-level pharmacist called technical assistants and technicians. They will receive their training at a higher education facility. We anticipate that during that transition period there could be some problems, but we will make contingency plans accordingly," said Minister Botha.