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The improvement in the salaries to public sector pharmacists of the past three years has made it more difficult for private pharmacies to recruit and retain pharmacists in their employ, the Financial Gleaner has learned.
Currently, pharmacists in the public sector are paid better than their counterparts working in the private sector, while the opposite was the case a few years ago.
According to government figures, a government-employed pharmacist at the very top of the scale can earn a gross salary of $10.6 million per year.
Meanwhile the number of private retail pharmacies in Jamaica has grown from about 300 in 2009 to an estimated 530 at present.
“In years gone by, you had a situation where a pharmacist working in government was getting half of what the pharmacists in the private sector were earning. So it was very difficult for government to retain pharmacies in that setting,” Dr Tyrone Smith, president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica told the Financial Gleaner.
But, thanks to the public sector compensation review a few years ago, the tables have turned.
“What came out of that review is that it catapulted public pharmacies above what is being paid in the private sector. So now it’s more attractive to work in government and has caused disruption in the private sector,” Smith said.
According to figures on the website of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, the basic salary for a Level 1 pharmacist in the public sector, with effect from April 1, 2024, ranged from a low of $3.24 million to a high of $4.46 million.
The basic salary for a pharmacist at Level 7, the highest level, ranged from $8.92 million to $10.6 million.
One of the more dynamic pharmacy chains is Fontana Limited, a big player that just got bigger after snapping up rival chain, Monarch Pharmacy. The acquisition grew Fontana’s network to 11 pharmacies.
There are indications that about 30 per cent of the pharmacies throughout Jamaica are concentrated in Kingston and St Andrew, but efforts to get the precise number of establishments were unfruitful up to press time.
However, the numbers run into hundreds.
For instance, the National Health Fund indicates on its websites that, up to March 2024, there were 477 pharmacies on the NHF provider listing, which means they dispense medication from the NHF.
With respect to their distribution across Jamaica, in Kingston and St Andrew there were 141 pharmacies on the NHF list; 87 in St Catherine; 39 in St Ann; 38 each in Manchester and St James; Manchester and St James, Clarendon had 32 pharmacies, St Elizabeth 27, Westmoreland 25, St Mary 12, Hanover and Trelawny had 10 each, and Portland and St Thomas had nine each.
The list of NHF provider pharmacies does not reflect all the pharmacies in Jamaica.
Meanwhile, Smith said, as of March 2024, there were 1,369 registered pharmacists.
The number continues to grow steadily, despite some migration and retirement, because more than 70 new pharmacists enter the profession each year from the two pharmacy schools at the University of Technology and The University of the West Indies, he said.
Smith, himself a pharmacy owner, said that, while a number of pharmacists had opened their own pharmacy businesses, not all had been successful.
“It’s more than just pumping some capital into a space and saying, ‘Hey, I’m running my own business’. A lot comes with the management aspect – human resources, inventory management, commercial relations with suppliers. There’s a lot that goes into it,” he said.
On the question of salaries, Smith said the Pharmaceutical Society was in talks with the Jamaica Association of Private Pharmacy Owners to arrive at a compensation standard for pharmacists.
“Right now, salaries are unstructured because we are dealing with hundreds of different pharmacy owners. We are hoping to establish a base that says no pharmacist in Jamaica should be paid below this amount,” he said.
A pharmacy owner who declined to be named said the business has become more challenging in recent times because the private pharmacies are competing more with the NHF’s network of Drug Serv pharmacies, which have expanded the number of drugs they dispense.
There are 106 Drug Serv pharmacies located in hospitals and health centres across Jamaica.
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