5 Secrets of Success from the Pharmacy Practice of the Year
Congratulations to Bernadette Brown, whose Cadham Pharmacy has been named as Pharmacy Practice of the Year at the Scottish Pharmacist Awards 2016.
My colleague, Paul Gershlick, and I had the privilege of interviewing Bernadette at this year's Sigma Conference. Given everything we discovered that she was doing in her pharmacy, we are not surprised that Bernadette has been given the award.
Our presentation identified four pharmacists who were making a real difference and leading the way in community pharmacy with their innovative thinking. With the challenges that community pharmacy in this country is now facing, change is an absolute necessity. Bernadette and the other pharmacists we interviewed in our showcase session - Dushyant Patel of Blakeberry, Amish Patel of Hodgsons Pharmacy and Rikin Patel of Sharmans and other pharmacies - are certainly an inspiration.
So what are Bernadette's secrets of success?
- Focusing on the team
Bernadette invests in her team and is passionate about bringing everyone in it along with her. She has a very cohesive team, which lies at the core of everything her pharmacy does. In return, her team members respond well and are dedicated and hard-working. - Independent prescribing
Bernadette is gaining confidence and shadowing her GP in his ear, nose and throat clinic. Support from her local NHS has enabled her to provide pain consultations to a high standard. Bernadette has two NHS nurses working with her, a respiratory nurse and a nurse for common clinical conditions. In future, Bernadette will build on the acute care to deliver an enhanced minor illness triage walk-in clinic for her community, including prescribing in urinary tract infections, skin, eyes, ear, nose, throat and acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Of course, the NHS Scotland funding of pharmacy is different to the approach taken by NHS England, which helps. - Using robots to help with dispensing and free up staff time to be spent with patients.
- Creating a different environment by making her pharmacy a health centre with consulting rooms, rather than being just a shop has also been an important factor.
- Collaborative working
Cadhams works very closely with GPs and participates in GP education meetings. Bridging the gap between pharmacies and GPs is crucial as both professions need to work together to tackle their increasing, but different, challenges.
Like the vast majority of pharmacists we come across, Bernadette's desire to help her patients is paramount. To quote her: 'The people we serve are the most important part of this, and I’m proud that independent prescribing has enabled me to work with them, not just to improve their health and quality of life, but to give them back real enjoyment of their life again, enabling them to restart hobbies and spend active time with family and friends, and in some cases, improve their independence.'
What an inspiration! Well done, again, to Bernadette!