Latest Global Workforce Report Shows Increase in Pharmacist Numbers

PRESS RELEASE

Düsseldorf, 30 September 2015 — The number of pharmacists per 10,000 population has grown around the world, according to a new report from the International Pharmaceutical Federation Education Initiative (FIPEd).

The publication, “Global pharmacy workforce intelligence: Trends report”, was released today at the 75

^th

World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. It is the fourth in a series of workforce reports produced every three years and contains a trend analysis of the three previous reports (2006, 2009, 2012), which covers 51 countries.

“It is important to monitor the global pharmacy workforce so that we can make informed decisions on how best to use our pharmacists. There is still a need for more pharmacists; low- and middle-income countries still have very low density compared with high-income countries. In particular, the increases we have seen may not be keeping pace with shifts in disease burden,” said Ian Bates, Director of the FIPEd Development Team.

“The overall growth we have found reflects positive changes in policy and capacity building to facilitate extended roles, and a shift in focus in pharmacy to patients,” said Christopher John, Director of the FIP-RPS Global Workforce Observatory, a joint project with the Royal

Pharmaceutical Society in the United Kingdom. “Pharmaceutical service development and new scope and roles for clinical pharmacy implies increased demand on the pharmacy workforce worldwide,” Mr John added.

Not all countries, however, have seen an increase in pharmacists. Three of the 51 countries have experienced a decrease in

workforce capacity of pharmacists.

“It is of interest to find out what is happening in those countries that is eroding pharmacist capacity. Decreases could be related to net migration,” Professor Bates said. He added that further work is under way to identify these workforce influences.