What does a Pharmacist actually do?

The short version

Pharmacists are the medicines experts — checking prescriptions, advising clinicians, and increasingly prescribing. The route is fixed: four-year MPharm, a paid foundation year, then GPhC registration.

The pitch: a portable qualification spanning community, hospital, GP practice and industry, with clinical and prescribing roles expanding. The honest catch: the community market is squeezed — locum rates have fallen year on year and employed pay has stagnated relative to the legal responsibility you carry.

Entry routes that actually work

• MPharm (4 years) + foundation training year — the only route to registration.
• Then pick your market — community, hospital, GP practice/PCN, industry.
• Prescribing qualification — the add-on that materially widens options.