CELEBRATING THE BEST OF SCOTTISH PHARMACY


An evening dedicated to celebrating excellence and achievement united Scotland’s pharmacy community at this year’s Scottish Pharmacy Awards. Throughout the evening, the ceremony celebrated the innovation, excellence and dedication that sits at the sector’s core.


Hosted by broadcaster, journalist and one of Scotland’s most recognisable voices, Gordon Smart, the event was held at Edinburgh International Convention Centre and was sponsored by AAH Pharmaceuticals.


For a number of years, Scotland has successfully been delivering the shift towards primary care. It pioneered Pharmacy First and has more independent prescribers than any other country in the UK. But Scotland’s innovative approach hasn’t stopped there. The awards illustrated how pharmacies in Scotland continue to look for new ways to support the communities they work in, to provide the highest level of care and to prevent illness from occurring in the first place. From visiting the most vulnerable patients in their own homes to Health MOTs aimed at identifying patients at risk from developing serious conditions in the future, the Scottish pharmacy sector continues to set the standard for others to follow.


This year’s entries were all so strong that the judges had a difficult job picking the winners. After much debate and deliberation, they eventually agreed and the ceremony saw the 2026 winners crowned in eight different categories. Perhaps one of the most exciting categories was the Customer Award, new this year it is voted for purely by the patients the community pharmacy serves. The amount of patient votes received were overwhelming and the comments received demonstrate just how highly those working in community pharmacy are thought of. You can read some of these comments on page 46/47.


A special mention goes to Campbeltown Pharmacy who took home not one, but two awards. One of the most remote pharmacies in Scotland, it was taken over last year by joint owners Zain Younis, Syed Ali and Mohammed Idreece Khan.


“Having opened our pharmacy just last April as a brand new contract in a rural community that was previously underserved, this recognition means a great deal to us,” said Syed.


“From the very beginning, our vision has been to transform pharmacy provision in a remote setting and to deliver the highest standards of care and service to our patients, and these awards reflect how meaningful that mission has been. We are truly grateful for the trust our patients have placed in us and it is their support that continues to drive everything we do. We remain committed to building on this foundation and striving to do even better for the people of Campbeltown,” he said.


Another talking point of the evening was the speech by Brian Chambers, managing director of AAH Pharmaceuticals, who chose to use the platform to speak about supply chain resilience.


Speaking after the event he said: “We are all part of the same supply chain. We all care about the same thing. And we have to be prepared to say out loud what we’ve perhaps been avoiding.


"This is not a pharmacy problem. Not a wholesale problem. Not a manufacturing problem. It is our problem. All of us. And the only way it gets better is if we stop tiptoeing around it and start talking honestly about what is broken and why. Last night felt like a room full of people who already know this. They just needed someone to say it first.


“The nominees and winners are doing something important. Delivering real clinical care, real patient outcomes, in genuinely difficult conditions. That deserves recognition. But so does the conversation we’re not quite having yet. The one about whether the system we’ve built is capable of sustaining what we are asking pharmacy to be.”


Once the awards were presented, guests were entertained by Cammy Barnes, one of the biggest voices in Scotland right now. He kept the celebrations going as guests took to the dance floor.


10 scotpharm.com


The event delivered an outstanding evening of celebration and showed that, despite all the pressures, community pharmacy remains driven by compassion, powered by innovation and deeply valued by the patients it serves.


For those of you who weren’t there, and those of you who were, take a look and see who you can spot in the photos before reading the winners’ stories.


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