The South East is the only English region where PharmSee's current data shows more GP practices than pharmacies in the main travel-to-work area: 108 GPs against 106 pharmacies within 10 miles of Brighton (ratio 1.02). Combine that with just 31 live vacancies and you get a market where pay has to rise to pull pharmacists in — and NHS trust bands are doing exactly that.
This pillar walks through the numbers: live vacancy volume, chain mix, GP-to-pharmacy density, and NHS trust pay bands — all drawn from PharmSee's own data as of April 2026. If you want to skip the analysis and go straight to the tool, the full dataset is live at /app/jobs and /app/pharmacies.
1. Live vacancies in South East
Measured from a 25-mile radius around Brighton (BN1):
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Active pharmacy vacancies | 31 |
| Boots listings | 8 (26%) |
| Other chains on the board | Asda (2), Superdrug (1), Tesco (1) |
| National total (all regions) | 1,354 |
Boots' share in South East is 26%, against a national average of 37%. That tells you immediately whether the local market is Boots-led or independent-led — and that has real consequences for salary negotiation leverage.
Browse every live role in the region on PharmSee's job search.
2. Pharmacy density — the denominator nobody talks about
Vacancy counts only mean something next to the store and prescriber base they sit in. Within 10 miles of Brighton (BN1):
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Pharmacies | 106 |
| GP practices | 108 |
| GP-to-pharmacy ratio | 1.02 |
| Jobs per 100 pharmacies | 29.2 |
A ratio below 1.0 means there are more pharmacies than GP surgeries in the area — which sounds healthy, but also means the dispensing pie is split more ways, squeezing per-store revenue. Use PharmSee's pharmacy finder to see every store in the area with its NHS contract category and estimated monthly dispensing revenue.
3. Pay bands on the board right now
University Hospitals Sussex is advertising a Consultant Ophthalmology Pharmacist at £66,582–£91,609 and a Deputy Chief Pharmacist at £94,356–£108,814 — the highest-paid pharmacy roles PharmSee is tracking in the South East this cycle. Rotational Band 6 work at the same trust pays £39,959–£48,117. Community rates in the BN postcodes cluster around £44k–£49k for newly-qualified pharmacists, lifted by Brighton's cost of living.
For a structured view of pharmacist salary bands across the UK, see the main salary intelligence hub.
4. What this means for candidates
- If you're newly qualified: South East offers a meaningful step up from the £40,000 rotational floor, but the jump happens at Band 7+ on the NHS trust side, not in community. Start filtering NHS-only on the job board.
- If you're looking at locum rates: chain concentration is your single best predictor of ceiling. South East has 26% Boots share — higher share means tighter rate control, lower share means more negotiation room.
- If you're considering ownership: the GP-to-pharmacy ratio (1.02) tells you whether the area is over- or under-supplied with dispensing capacity. Ratios below 0.85 generally indicate heavy competition per prescriber.
5. What this means for operators
The regulatory backdrop matters too. The MHRA's new MHRA–NICE aligned pathway is expected to pull new medicines into the NHS 3–6 months sooner, which raises clinical pharmacist demand at the hospital trust layer first. In high-density areas like this one, expect Band 7 and Band 8a vacancy volumes to rise before community pay moves.
For live dispensing revenue estimates per store in the region, see every pharmacy in PharmSee's directory.
Sources
All figures in this article come from PharmSee's own dataset (13,147 pharmacies, 12,858 GP practices, 1,354 active pharmacy vacancies as of 2026-04-09), cross-referenced with NHS and gov.uk publications cited below.