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AWARDS


COMMUNITY PHARMACY TEAM OF THE YEAR


supported by DAVIDSONS CHEMIST, FORFAR


When she joined the Davidsons Chemist team at Forfar in 2012, pharmacist Lauren Clarke very quickly realised that she wasn’t so much joining a ‘team’ as becoming a member of a long-standing pharmacy ‘family’.


‘I started working here as Pharmacy Manager in late 2012 following the retirement of the previous pharmacist who managed the shop for over 20 years,’ Lauren told SP. ‘Many of the current staff have a similar, if not longer term of service, so staff turnover is low, giving this pharmacy deep roots in caring for the people of Forfar.’


Although key staff have changed very little over the years, the pharmacy has had quite a dramatic transformation within the past year. The shop has been fully redesigned and refi tted, with Davidsons investing in a state- of-the-art robot to assist in dispensing duties. ‘Walter’, the robot, carries out most of the assembly and stock control tasks, allowing the team to focus its time on activities of more benefi t to its patients.


‘There’s no doubt, Lauren continued, ‘that we have developed as a team to fi nd our leading roles within the pharmacy and we use our strengths to support each other, using our varied skill set to accomplish any task put before us. All staff have either completed the pharmacy assistant and pharmacy technician training courses - or are very near to doing so - allowing me to delegate and fully utilise the whole team to their best potential. This further enhances effi ciency across the branch and allows me to put my time and knowledge into helping support our patients and local GP surgeries.


‘The objective of our pharmacy has always been to provide outstanding customer care. The business thrives


Davidsons Chemist, Forfar celebrate with Samantha Taylor, Key Account Controller, Numark


when patients receive high-quality pharmacy service, and I try to lead by example in this objective. Every member of staff – myself included - always goes the extra mile for our patients. Each of us excels in treating each patient who walks through our doors as an individual.


‘We aim to use all the tools and knowledge at our disposal to fully meet patients’ healthcare - needs whatever they may be. We promote all strands of the core pharmacy contract and many extra services as they become available to us. As a team, we are not content to maintain the status quo and are always on the lookout for ways to improve or add new services to our repertoire. We encourage open communication within our pharmacy so that all staff can voice opinions or ideas.


‘We try to provide as wide a range of services as possible. Our branch is, for example, the only pharmacy in Forfar that offers a vaccination service, so we have a great uptake for this. The front shop staff conduct a


short consultation with the patients to ensure the vaccine is suitable for them and assist them to complete the required paperwork. I administer hundreds of fl u vaccines each winter to NHS staff, council staff and privately paying customers. With uptake of the HPV and meningitis vaccines increasing we see a lot of referrals for these coming through now also.


‘We also have a reasonably large number of patients attend our pharmacy for opiate substitute therapy, with increasing numbers attending for supervised buprenorphine. In line with this, we provide a needle exchange and advice service for these and other substance misuse patients. We also organised an in-store training event for the supply of naloxone one evening, which all staff attended, and most recently we have been involved in the Super Dot C study.


‘We are currently promoting my independent prescribing qualifi cation as I slowly expand my competency


into the fi eld of common clinical conditions. A lot of these are referred on to me via the local GP surgery further reducing the pressure on their stretched workforce.


‘We offer a very popular and successful smoking cessation service, which has achieved the second highest quit rate at twelve weeks in the whole of Tayside. This has been achieved by offering nicotine replacement therapy or varenicline dependent on patient preference and previous experience. All of our pharmacy staff are trained and profi cient at providing a smoking cessation service, particularly Ann, who is very good at delivering this and, more importantly, really enjoys doing it! We get great results and Ann consistently receives good feedback from patients about the way she conducts this service. She’s a great example of how each team member has a vital role to play.’


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