PHARMACY OF THE YEAR HUGHES


PHARMACY EnnISKIllEn


If Any MorE Proof WAS nEEDED of ThE ConTrIBUTIon ThAT CoMMUnITy PhArMACy CAn MAKE To norThErn IrElAnD hEAlThCArE, onE only hAS To looK AT ThE rAngE of SErVICES ProVIDED By ThE WInnEr of ThIS yEAr’S PhArMACy of ThE yEAr AWArD.


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ughes Pharmacy in Enniskillen has been a family-owned and family-operated pharmacy for


more than 60 years. The pharmacy was first opened by Mrs laura Joan hughes in 1955. her son Paul – the current owner - joined her in the business in 1985 after having managed a pharmacy in Durham, England for two years. In September 2015, Mrs hughes sadly passed away, having served the community for 60 years.


over the years, the pharmacy has been continuously refurbished and renovated and now finds itself the only pharmacy in the town of Enniskillen, which is owned and run by an indigenous family.


‘We have made the pharmacy a central part of the community for all our working lives, dealing with local people and meeting their health needs,’ Paul told Pif. ‘I believe that the legacy of continuity of good health care through the generations and personal service is our unique selling point. our knowledge of local families, grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren has seen generation after generation of the same family use our pharmacy.


‘We pride ourselves on providing a holistic and individual service, which differs from that provided by the multinationals and chains.’


from the outset, hughes Pharmacy’s main business objective has always


been to put the health and wellbeing of its customers and community first and to deliver a high-class service delivered by well-trained, educated and pleasant staff.


Paul and his team aim to deliver pharmacy services both from within the pharmacy itself and on an outreach basis to the local community via meetings, health fairs and local groups.


hughes Pharmacy was one of the first pharmacies in northern Ireland to be granted full health + Pharmacy accreditation and, following on from this, the pharmacy team decided to hold a ‘good health Day’ once a month to raise the profile of a healthy lifestyle. on this ‘good health Day’, the pharmacy team carries out blood pressure, blood sugar and BMI readings, and offers healthy living advice to everyone taking part, as well as highlighting all of the other services it provides.


Crucially, the team also signposts patients to other healthcare providers, if deemed necessary. A directory of these providers is held in the pharmacy and all staff are familiar with it.


‘The ‘good health Day’ has been a great success,’ says Paul, ‘and the uptake of services like smoking cessation, medicine use reviews and medicines management has greatly increased. As a result of our health


reviews, several patients have been referred to physiotherapists, podiatrists, chiropodists, counsellors, diabetic clinics, dieticians and gPs.


‘The feedback has been extremely positive and more and more people are enquiring about the service.’


The pharmacy has also been providing pharmacy services to a local psychiatric nursing home for more than fifteen years and has a very interactive relationship with the staff and residents.


Paul recently came up with the idea of a ‘health Passport’ for the residents. not all of the home’s residents are comfortable talking about medical or health matters in public – or even, for that matter, in the privacy of a consultation room.


With this in mind, Paul suggested going into the home where the residents are comfortable in their own environment and holding a health information day. Paul noted all the prescription data from the nursing staff and based himself in a room in the home to which the residents were invited to come in for a chat about any health concerns.


A portfolio was then assembled for each patient consisting of current medication, BP reading, blood sugar reading, BMI reading (and therefore whether overweight/obese), and recording whether or not they


smoked. The patients were then offered relevant services, such as smoking cessation, dietary advice and so on. A full medicines use review was also carried out on each patient and any issues highlighted.


As a lot of psychiatric medicines have the adverse effect of weight gain for the patient and a lot of psychiatric patients smoke, healthy living advice and dietary advice was particularly relevant.


hughes Pharmacy was also one of the first pharmacies in northern Ireland to achieve full accreditation to the health+ pharmacy concept.


‘We believe that we showed initiative in becoming the first pharmacy in Enniskillen to receive this recognition,’ says Paul, ‘and set about using this idea to further promote healthy living and a healthy lifestyle in our community.


‘We take part in all of the ‘traditional’ health promotion activities promoted by the Public health Agency, such as flu vaccination, safe disposal of medicines, care in the sun etc, but we also pride ourselves on offering a wide-ranging homeopathy and alternative medicines service led by a highly-respected retired pharmacist, who specialised in this field over 30 years.’


PhArMACy In foCUS - 29


Prabh Singh, Idis and Paul Hughes and the team at Hughes Pharmacy


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