You can find pharmacies on almost every corner in Wichita. But they can't find enough pharmacists to fill all of the prescriptions. There's a shortage in Kansas and it's not because people aren't interested. The problem is there aren't enough seats at the KU School of Medicine to meet the demand. To fix that, KU wants to build a pharmacy school in Wichita.
It's welcome news to pharmacist George Saghbene. The line at Barney's Pharmacy in Wichita is always getting longer. "The volume of prescriptions is up, so obviously you need more pharmacists to take care of the patients," Saghbene said. But it's not easy to find pharmacists. It took him a year to hire another one. "The competition is so great that literally they can quit overnight and go the next day and have a job," he said.
4 billion prescriptions were filled last year alone in the United States. That number is expected to keep growing as the population ages. To help meet the demand KU wants to start a school in Wichita with 20 students per class. "There are way more students who want to go to the school of pharmacy then can get in. At KU there were 4 applicants for every one who got in last year in Lawrence," Pharmacist Jeanine Brizendine said. She's working to get backing from the Wichita City Council and Sedgwick County Commission.
Brizendine says KU is also talking to the state about funding. She says it will cost four to five million dollars to start up. If they get funding soon, the school could open by fall 2008. It will be housed with the Wichita branch school of medicine.
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