Sun, May 04, 2025 page3

• FEATURE: Big hospitals are facing a shortage of pharmacists

  • By Lin Hui-chin / Staff reporter
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  Many of the nation’s large hospitals are running short of pharmacists, with some having a shortage of up to 30 percent.

  According to data from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, there were 37,391 registered pharmacists as of the end of last year, with 19,994 working in pharmacies, while 17,278 worked in healthcare facilities.

  During the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for masks and at-home rapid test kits had led to many people visiting community pharmacies, and many of them would buy other products while they were there, so overall sales increased by about 30 percent, Federation of Taiwan Pharmacists Associations president Huang Jin-shun (黃金舜) said.

  

  A pharmacist works at Tainan Municipal Hospital in an undated photograph.

  Photo courtesy of the Tainan Municipal Hospital

  At the time, some pharmacists left hospitals and opened their own stores, and the number of pharmacies increased from more than 7,000 to more than 8,000 across the nation, he said.

  However, sales declined after the pandemic, and as the cost of hiring pharmacists is high, more than 300 community pharmacies had shut down, he added.

  Taiwan Society of Health-System Pharmacists president Chang Yuh-lih (張豫立) said that pharmacist shortage is common in medical centers and regional hospitals, especially in northern Taiwan, where there are shortages of 5 percent to 30 percent.

  While some pharmacy departments of hospitals in central and southern Taiwan are fully staffed, others still have a shortage of more than 10 percent, Chang said.

  The difference in pharmacist shortages in northern and southern Taiwan could be because of differences in salary and cost of living, he said.

  Many graduates of pharmacy departments in central or southern Taiwan previously would look for a job in northern Taiwan due to the higher salaries, but as the salaries in hospitals of central and southern Taiwan have increased over the past few years, and the cost of living in northern Taiwan is higher, many graduates go to central or southern Taiwan to work, he said.

  National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Pharmacy director Huang Chih-fen (黃織芬) said they have not observed that pharmacists are returning to hospitals, and many hospitals still have pharmacist shortages.

  The difficulty in recruiting pharmacists to hospitals stems from that the work there is more complicated, and that frontline prescription is fast-paced, high-volume and has many additional requirements such as educational training and hospital accreditation, Chang said.

  As long as the salary and benefits are lower than in community pharmacies, hospitals would have difficulty recruiting or retaining pharmacists, he said.

  Most pharmacists who left non-hospital workplaces would not return to hospitals, he added.

  There are more patients with complicated conditions in hospitals, so pharmacists would need to constantly learn from training sessions and might need to train coworkers, so when the incentives are not enough, they could leave hospitals more easily, Huang said.

  Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀) said the ministry is pushing for reforming hospital pharmacies, hoping to reduce the staff’s workload by collaborating with pharmacies or integrating automated smart equipment into prescription and distribution work.

  It would let pharmacists in hospitals focus on more complicated work, allowing them to demonstrate their professional value and be more willing to stay in their jobs, Lin said.

  Meanwhile, the National Health Research Institutes’ projection for the pharmacy workforce, commissioned by the ministry, predicted that the supply of pharmacists would exceed demand in the future, and the number of pharmacists would increase to about 40,000 by 2032, but the shortage in medical facilities would increase.

  The prediction was made using data from the Hospital Information System, statistics of students and graduates of pharmacy departments, the number of people who passed the national examination for pharmacist license, a survey on pharmacists’ work burden, and the National Health Insurance system.

  The institute’s study also predicted that the number of annual prescriptions would increase from more than 280 million in 2022 to more than 360 million in 2032, and the number of registered pharmacists in the workforce would increase from more than 36,000 to more than 39,000 — from an average of 15.8 pharmacists per 10,000 people to 17.2 per 10,000 people.

  However, it also predicted that the number of pharmacists aged 65 or older would increase from about 7,300 to 11,749, accounting for 19.9 percent to 29.8 percent of all pharmacists.

  In addition, the ratio of pharmacist supply and demand would shift from minus-6.7 percent in 2022 to minus-13.7 percent in 2032 in medical centers, and from minus-0.4 percent to minus-12.4 percent in regional hospitals, it predicted.

  As the supply of pharmacists is projected to exceed demand in the future, schools should not establish new pharmacy departments, the institute said.

  As medical facilities continue to face pharmacist shortages, the government should encourage hospitals to improve their salary and benefits, help them relieve work stress, offer career development opportunities, and continue to encourage patients to seek medical attention at clinics and local hospitals to reduce the burden at large hospitals, it added.
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