CELEBRATING PHARMACY EXCELLENCE
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A night of celebration and recognition saw Northern Ireland’s pharmacy community come together for this year’s Pharmacy in Focus Awards. The event showcased the excellence, innovation and dedication that sits right at the very heart of the country’s community pharmacy sector.
Held in partnership with UCA-NI and hosted by news presenter Mark Simpson, the award ceremony took place at the end of March at the Crowne Plaza in Belfast. “It was a memorable night. Great to see Pharmacists have a night out. They work so, so hard. A shout out to the suppliers too,” commented Mark after the event.
The ceremony shone a spotlight on the amazing work that takes place within community pharmacy in Northern Ireland. There were so many great examples of how pharmacists and their teams go above and beyond for their patients, day in, day out. They do all of this despite the pressures faced, including limited funding coupled with the expectation to deliver more services.
There were some brilliant instances of community pharmacies thinking outside the box to address these challenges, with new ways of working and technology introduced to release more time for patient care, or new services introduced to create additional revenue streams. What also shone through were the pharmacies taking care right to the heart of the communities they served through outreach schemes and partnership working.
So strong were all the entries, 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 seven 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 was 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 47.
But it has to be pharmacist Helen Murphy who stole the night when she won the Outstanding Contribution Award (read more on page 14). Upon collecting the award she was asked what the secret to a successful business was - “stay single”
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she replied, a response which saw the whole room, including presenter Mark, erupt with laughter.
Once the awards were presented, guests were entertained by Jordan Connor Unplugged who kept the celebrations going as guests took to the dance floor. The talented Northern Ireland singer lived up to his reputation for energetic acoustic sets full of crowd favourites.
The event delivered an outstanding evening of celebration and showed that, despite 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 on the photos before reading the winners’ stories.
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