Having joined Barnton Pharmacy during his foundation year, Glenn then worked through his post foundation portfolio and prescribing qualification at the branch in Edinburgh. He has always gone out of his way to ensure every patient that enters the pharmacy is helped and never turns anyone away.
He recently received his NHS prescription pads. But before qualifying as an independent prescriber, if a patient turned up at Barnton Pharmacy under the misapprehension the branch had a prescriber, Glenn would always assess the patient. He would then go a step further, personally booking the patient a same day GP appointment if he believed antibiotics were needed.
An example of this is when a patient with a suspected chest infection was directed to the pharmacy while Glenn was still training to be an independent prescriber. Instead of telling the patient he couldn’t help, he assessed the patient and identified the need for antibiotics due to fever and crackles. He then managed to secure an appointment at the patient's surgery, which was in another city, for later in the day. The patient was delighted with the service they had received.
On another occasion, NHS 24 triaged a patient as having tonsillitis and wrongly told them to attend the pharmacy without checking if there was an independent prescriber on duty. Instead of instantly calling the professional line to get the patient an appointment, Glenn assessed the patient, identified a potential tonsil abscess and then called the professional line. The Lothian Unscheduled Care Service GP appreciated the consultation notes and insight provided by Glenn. As a result of this the GP did not need to see the patient and was instead able to send them straight to St John's Hospital to see a specialist. Glenn’s intervention significantly improved and streamlined the patient’s journey.
While newly qualified, Glenn became an on-call palliative care pharmacist. He has trained all his colleagues about the palliative care service and prescriptions which ensures they are seen as a priority for processing and delivery. In addition, just in case leaflets are handed out with new just in case medicines and families and carers counselled on what that means. Antibiotics and urgent items are pulled out to the top of the prescription bundle to be prioritised.
"Glenn has always gone out of his way to ensure every patient that enters the pharmacy is helped and never turns anyone away..."
Glenn also signed up to the RPS/Marie Curie daffodil standards. As part of his work in this area he has delivered a presentation on what he has done to meet the daffodil standards at the Scottish Parliament. He has also signed up to more courses to support his palliative care work.
Glenn has almost completed his RPS post foundation portfolio and has completed his independent prescribing and is providing Pharmacy First Plus along with vaccinations and earwax microsuction. He has also spent time in the local medical practice and local nursing home to improve healthcare links and ensure they are aware of what the pharmacy can do to help patients. In addition, he has also hosted local politicians and foreign politicians to help showcase the work the pharmacy does.
When patients turn up at Barnton Pharmacy looking for a specific medication item, having tried many other pharmacies beforehand, Glenn takes on the responsibility every time and will either source the item or ask the GP for an alternative. He is also often seen delivering prescriptions after work and has been known to track down urgent medication from the hospital for a local nursing home when their usual pharmacy couldn’t help.
Recently Glenn took on management responsibilities and he has approached this new challenge with the same level of commitment and dedication. He ensures his colleagues are aware of all services and processes and that they triage all patients to ensure they are directed to the most appropriate person for support. The team have a weekly meeting where Glenn ensures safety issues and near misses are discussed.
He provides the perfect balance by looking at what can be improved if a process hasn’t gone as well as it could, while also taking time to praise the things that have worked well. Glenn supports staff through their courses and mentors pharmacy students, medical students and FT1s working in the local practice.
Services, prescriptions and sales at the pharmacy are now up year on year. Patient and staff satisfaction at the pharmacy are incredibly high and the pharmacy received more thank you gifts than ever this Christmas!
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