Pharmacy profession still dominated by women

Women continue to dominate the pharmacy workforce in New Zealand.

According to the Pharmacy Council's latest workforce survey, there were a total of
3076 practising pharmacists in the country as at 30 June 2009 – 1807 of them women.

The survey lists an additional 1017 pharmacists as "non-practising" and 220 as
"interns", taking the total registered pharmacists with different scopes of practice to
4313. The figure is up 98 (or 3.3%) from 2008.

A mere 1.5% of the total pharmacy workforce (or 46 professionals) were Maori,
compared to 59.7% (1837) New Zealand Pakeha and 10.4% (319) from other
European backgrounds. The Chinese, Indian and "other Asians" who did not specify
their ethnicity form the other major groups.

While a vast majority of practising pharmacists remain in the 26 to 55 age bracket,
more male than female pharmacists are choosing to work beyond their retirement age.

The survey lists 211 practising pharmacists over the age of 65. Of them, 192 are men.
Also, some community pharmacists are now putting in more than 50-hour weeks.

Meanwhile, the survey notes 171 pharmacists were removed from the register in the
year ended 30 June 2009, which is up by 27 (or 18.8%) on the previous year.

Practising pharmacists are required to hold an Annual Practising Certificate (APC)
under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003, regardless of the
number of hours they work each year.

As part of their application for an APC, pharmacists also provide details that enable
the council to assess their fitness to practise. These details help compile the workforce
data. A similar survey will be released this year to keep track of changes in the
pharmacy workforce demographics.

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