pharmacist

nurse

clinical pharmacist

customer service representative

pharmacy dispenser

LloydsPharmacy

Over the past year or so there has been a gradual downfall in the allocation of resources and staffing to our shop. Pay has went up slightly which has been good, but overall the working conditions have declined. The pharmacy I work in is open long hours and also delivers palliative care pharmacy services, has around 150 patients on blister packs, over 30 people on addiction-related services, takes bundles of prescriptions twice daily from the GP surgery along with a once-daily collection from other surgeries that are local, does express repeat services on a weekly basis, and delivers medication to many patients. This doesn't even include the amount of people we have handing in prescriptions in and phoning us to query us about many things including stock and medication, which is a lot of people as we are more busy than many other pharmacies within our company. The staffing allocated for all these services to be completed is becoming something which I am becoming increasingly concerned about, not only for us as employees but for the safety of the general public.  At night when there is somebody off and there is no coverage, the pile of GP prescriptions often cannot be done because 6-9 shifts will be completely consumed by answering phone calls and doing waiting prescriptions, keeping up with the demands of waiting customers. Phone calls can often take up to 10/15 minutes which takes away a significant amount of time from everything else that needs to be done, and I am often the only one able to answer the phone and do waiting prescriptions, which cannot be multitasked. Being unable to do GP scripts also means we cannot then move onto other tasks like blister packs and express repeats, date checking etc. 
               Infrastructure is also not very good; management have put poor systems in place to ensure that pharmacies pass audits imposed by the company themselves rather than the general pharmaceutical council, which results in poor to very poor audit scores, then putting more pressure on managers, which is unfair because of the fact that we are doing the maximum of our own capacity just to keep the shop running, yet are blamed for the shop being in a poor condition, when more people are needed for tidiness etc. The pay situation isn't any better, people have waited months for a simple pay rise and have still been waiting on their risen pay being backdated since April; not only that, being underpaid is a common occurrence, and I worry for people who do not regularly check their pay within the company. I have seen my pharmacist become upset to the point of tears because of the sheer volume of work they have to undertake along with the number of people with discrepancies to their pay. Recently there was also a delay to pay, causing the potential for people to not be able to pay their direct-debits and be further fined on them as a result of late payment. 
                            Luckily I work with a great team of strong, upbeat and cooperative staff who deliver the best service they can and make every effort to work efficiently, meeting the demands. These demands, as aforementioned, are placed by many people waiting on prescriptions, frequent phone calls, customers who can be vindictive and accusatory towards staff at times, not understanding that if there's manufacturing or supply problems we simply cannot source a medication, or we may not supply certain items to people due to the fact that they may need to speak to a GP first for the appropriate authorisation; essentially, it can be a stressful and emotionally demanding job at times, where customers don't always understand to a full extent why you need to do things the way that you do. The safety of those who receive our services is always and will always be considered paramount, however, workload vs workforce is creating more than just a hindrance to our ability to deliver full focus and attention because of the stress and overflow caused, making pharmacists increasingly nervous and unhappy about coming to work, along with other staff too.

Pros:
This will open doors for you for further opportunities working in QA
If you are coming from high paced laboratory environment, or similar, you will likely appreciate that you're being paid well for what you are being asked to do. All things considered, it is a relatively low stress office based role.
There will probably be good opportunities to make some really decent overtime money if you're inclined to do so.

Cons:
You will most likely be surprised by how you are trained for the role. And not in a good way. There is a level of ambiguity and a lack of clarity that permeates throughout the company. You may find this highly uncomfortable.
It is monotonous drudgery. At least 75% of your work will be focused on batch release. You are essentially a spot the difference specialist. The company is far behind contemporary  industry standards, although there are rumours of technological updates in the mix. If they mention the possibility of remote work, that may be a sign they have actually finally switched from paper to digitally based files. But I no longer work there, so I do not know.

If you are looking for a job where you can learn, develop and grow your skillset in everything QA, you will be sorely disappointed. If you are interested in making  positive and impactful changes in the company, you will most likely be met with hostility and resistance. This will very quickly be apparent to anyone whose has worked there for 3 weeks, so at least you know what you are in for.

There is a generally negative atmosphere at the company that wears even the most positive people down over time. There are often vacancies open for this role as there is a high attrition rate. Frequently, there are  periods of very low morale in the office, that lead to little bursts of resignations from worn-down employees. 

6 months after I had joined, over 50%  of my fellow "spot the difference specialists" had moved on to pastures new. I was told by multiple colleagues, before they left, the exact same thing: "this is a springboard job. 1 to 3 years max. Get your experience. Make your money, and go". They were bang on, and I doubt anything has changed in that regard since I followed their advice.

To sum up: 
In all honesty I am grateful for the opportunity I was given, and for the money I made, working at Lloyds. If you are looking to cut your teeth into QA, save up a bit money and move on in 1-2 years, this might be a good option. Just look after yourself, and start preparing for your next move going in, and you'll leave with a smile on your face. Good Luck!

I started over 2 years ago and it was very difficult to meet expectations. Now, with the workload tripled and staffing hours cut it's impossible. So you get management coming in for an hour telling everyone what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. Then they leave without ever having to do a days work in store. It's all about the bottom line and blow the staff, they are expendable. I thought it good business practice to take care of the staff so they take care of the store/customers. Not so. We've had people with 15 years service quitting because they've had enough. We have irate customers everyday because their meds aren't ready due to the amount of scripts we get coming through hourly. Patients think if they put the repeat in at the doctors the night before it should be made up waiting for them at 8.30 the next day. The staff are great and we have a laugh sometimes, because if you didn't you'd cry, but morale is at an all time low. All this for minimum wage, or slightly above, for most staff. This is wrong considering the safety aspect the job entails. More and more mistakes are made due to not having enough staff to cope. If the powers that be don't recognise this then they're going to lose many more customers/patients in the future. When a pharmacist with 10 years experience has had enough, what hope is there. They can't keep training new people, from the ground up, and waste time doing so if people are not going to stay. Waste of time and money, with detrimental long term effects to all, including the bottom line. That said, training is non existent anyway. Staff are expected to do their monthly e-learning at home now, in their own time and for no pay. Why should they when they get nothing but criticism. Maybe it's just our area, that has these problems, but my opinion is don't ever work here in its current state.

Where do I start? This may just be my experience, but the management at least up to regional level is appalling, there seems to be no accountability for any mistakes made (however dangerous they seem to be).

The lack of patient (they prefer the term customer) care is unbelievable, so much so that managers/pharmacists are encouraged to not give medicine to people if the brand or from a different manufacturer is deemed 'too expensive'. Instead, the patient must go without or go about getting an alternative from an already overworked GP. 

Regional management doesn't seem to care about the plight of the shops under their command, happy to see pharmacies which serve large communities sink below the line (eg my ex-workplace has a total of 3 in the dispensary, with over 10,000 people to deal with in the town).

I even recount a time where I was asked to travel 50 miles to work in a different branch to cover a staff member, who I later discovered had left the company. When asked about the covering of the mileage on my car, I could feel my regional manager laugh on the other end of the phone, before being promptly told that I wouldn't be required to work there again, then telling staff at that branch that I was unavailable. 

If you currently work at a Lloyds and they encourage you to go onto a technician course, DO NOT DO IT. From my experience, it was a simple ploy to keep you with the company for the next (at least) 2 years.

The new dispensing system will bring a rightful end to this company, as many people will not want to wait a copious amount of time for prescriptions. 

The pay? Don't even ask..... criminally low.


I'm disabled, i was given a bunch of work to do within my first day, control of an entire aspect of the pharmacy that the manager was doing themselves beforehand. I was fine with this, as I love a challenge, but I asked if I could sit down while I was doing some of the more monotonous work, and instead of being accomodating to my disability like they're legally obligated to, it was explained that it would be "unfair" to the other able bodied workers, and that someone who had the same condition as me was forced to work without sitting already, so i should just shut up and put up, or I "wouldn't be suitable" for the position (insinuating i would be fired for this reasonable request). I think that is unacceptable. I will be doing a followup about this personally, but be aware if you're disabled and applying for a position at these pharmacies, they do not care about your health and wellbeing. If I didn't desperately need a job I wouldn't stick with them, honestly. 

The only benefits is that they are very accommodating with hours and travel time. They're desperate for employees, but don't expect that they'll value your health, despite being in a health care position...

They offer training after 8 weeks, for a higher wage, and potential advancement down the line. If you wanted to train in a pharmacy environment, it'd be worth doing, as some independant pharmacies wouldn't extend the same courtesy. All the employees I've worked with have complained about job standards, though, so don't expect to be pleased working there.

A typical day at work in Lloyds Pharmacy, as a Pharmacy Technician, OR a Dispensing assistant, will involve managing your daily workload and prioritising which parts of it you won't be able to achieve that day, along with which parts of the company's targets you won't be able to achieve.

The software used in the company's procedures is slow, unwieldy and prone to freezing or crashing, and sometimes the information put into it fails to show up when data is being analysed by upper management for reimbursement of services provided. 

Generally, the workplace colleagues are great to work with, but upper management are much more likely to employ the stick rather than the carrot when "encouraging" the teams.

Liasing with other medical professionals and helping the customers are the most rewarding parts of the job, and being aware that you have managed to help somebody when they leave the shop.

The hardest part of the job is the fact that even at the end of what you might think is a productive day, you know that the higher-ups won't be very impressed at all and will probably point out everything you missed. Oh and the wages are very, very low.

The upside is that despite this, the job itself is a very fulfilling one.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Close colleagues and leaving! Leaving after 19 years of giving hours of free time, working in stressful situation for minimum wage. Not valued AT ALL by regional and above was a reason to leave, the only good thing was close working colleagues. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The computer system failures. The the corrupt previous management, which head office did not deal with! Left a whole branch to fall apart! Many staff stressed beyond belief and still now troubled by it.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Internally amongst close friendship good, but overall extremely understaffed, underpaid, overworked.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
WAS...LEFT NOW. Start early to cash up b4 opening as no time once open! NOT PAID! work non stop very rushed, often no break until lunch. Late going to lunch-always customers expecting you to "just deal quickly with them" but everyday -unpaid. Get back from lunch queue only 1 person to serve counter, often just 1 dispenser, computer not up to the job! So delaying process. Customers get annoyed because script not ready or drugs not available. Work to close often (mist days) no time to drink. Late closing...always someone wanting a script at 2 mins to close! Go jone exhausted

When I first joined the company , we were fully trained, supported by our management teams had pharmacist who were regular and customers had a familiar face they trusted , the stores were well stocked , and customers were well catered for, then  they changed to the EPN style of store and that’s when it all came apart , we were told as employees if we didn’t like the changes we could leave , it because profit lead no consideration to the local areas needs , the focus was on selling higher priced skin care etc , yes there were staff who were trained in main areas , skin , pain  ,diabetes  but when they left the training stopped ,  management decided to customers  to sign up to the pharmacy ordering their medication, then that got out of control, and we then had angry, frustrated abusive  cues of customers constantly complaining and rightly so that there medication wasn’t ready on time as we’d promised on sign up that it would be ,  then there was a high level of experienced staff leaving  , no time  allocated to order of stock the store , I absolutely loved my job in the beginning would be with the company now if not for the changes and disrespect from our then management team who also constantly left and changed  , and I know my colleagues would of stayed too as we meet regularly and are still friends . 

LloydsPharmacy has destroyed me. Lost all of my work-life balance, and my whole life has become about work. All they care about is how many MURs you have done. They give you no support and staff morale is at its lowest ever since moving over to LloydsPharmacy. 
I understand it is a business - but this should not be to the detriment of colleagues self-esteem and patient care. You can only order medicines from their wholesaler and if it's out of stock then you are not allowed to get it from another wholesaler (that has it in stock) - it doesn't matter if you need it for a patient's prescription. 
CEO, directors and senior management only say what they think you want to hear, but they are empty words, they talk about their values all the time - but never live them for a second. So unhappy and so are all of my colleagues, we don't know what to do to make it better, they just give you more and more to do, and they won't care if you leave - they'll just replace you with someone on a lower wage. Really would love them to change there ways, but I don't think they ever will.

The job advertised seemed too good to be true, and sadly that was the case. I worked so hard for this company but never got any recognition.
Managers were just nurses who were promoted with minimal management skills, and who sadly used bullying tactics to get work done.
The job involved working many split shifts and driving 200 miles plus daily, and managers disregarded staffs safety as long as visits were completed.
Schedulers would swap visits around and add extra visits with minimal notice, making shifts pressurised, disorganised and stressful, and not taking into account road and traffic conditions , which would cause lateness to visit windows.
Split shifts would end up 12 hour shifts with no time given for breaks, and then once home having to complete hours of admin paperwork ( in which they expect you do complete this for free) 
Expected to be on call for the weekend ( Friday 1700-Monday 0900) for £20!!!!
Patients complained and nurses took the blame, with very little management support,  taking the patients side
If you want work with no home life balance and driving 2000 miles a month, out of area from where job vacancy is originally advertised..... then this is the job for you, sadly wasn’t the job for me .

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Pharmacist 21 salaries reported	£24.81 per hour
Nurse 33 salaries reported	£34,061 per year
Clinical pharmacist 15 salaries reported	£23.75 per hour
Customer service representative 7 salaries reported	£26,154 per year
Pharmacy dispenser 1 salary reported	£18,835 per year

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