Hospital pharmacy within the National Health Service

Hospital pharmacy within the National Health Service

The National Health Service (NHS) is a large and complex organisation, responsible for the great majority of healthcare provided in the UK. Spending, at time of writing, is around £120 billion, over 8% of gross domes-tic product. The NHS has a workforce of over 1¹/₂ million, including around 7500 pharmacists (this figure is for employees and excludes pharmacists delivering NHS services in community pharmacy). The responsibility for health is one devolved to the administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and, whilst there is much commonality in provision, there are significant structural differences across the UK. This chapter will summarise the current NHS organisational structures before describing the typical NHS acute hospital trust structure. Having established the context it will describe the range of staff and roles within hospital pharmacy and exemplify career pathways for pharmacists in the NHS.