CPNI NEWS
COMMUNITY PHARMACY NORTHERN IRELAND PROVIDES AN UPDATE…
In 2021, the Living Well campaigns will continue to support local communities by promoting targeted campaigns to reach sectors of the population who are not frequently exposed to health promotion activities. Its most recent campaign, ‘Vaccinations’, provides key messages and advice through community pharmacies that are contracted to provide this service.
The evaluation of the last campaign, ‘Coronavirus – Looking after your health and wellbeing’, has demonstrated that community pharmacies are ideally placed for ease of access to the public, with nearly 28,000 patients engaging with COVID-19 messages. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from community pharmacies offering the service, with 86 per cent either agreeing or strongly agreeing that the public feedback was mainly positive.
Additionally, campaign materials to allow the public access to appropriate health information and support has been supplied to community pharmacies, with 98 per cent of pharmacies reporting that resources helped to support the
pharmacy teams in answering COVID-19 related queries.
Specifically, one community pharmacist acknowledged that ‘the most positive outcome from the campaign was that we had the extra knowledge to pass on to our anxious customers, and in turn they were more relieved and understanding of the situation’.
The current campaign on vaccinations will continue throughout February and March. A ‘Distance Awareness’ initiative will launch from 1 March to reinforce the message that everyone, including those people who have had the COVID-19 vaccine, should continue to maintain social distance as a precautionary measure against contracting and spreading coronavirus. This initiative is designed to relieve anxiety amongst vulnerable members of the public and will form part of the next Living Well campaign focusing on mental health which will run through April and May.
Being placed in the heart of local communities across Northern Ireland, both urban and rural, community pharmacies can provide accessible,
reliable, and safe information from a trusted healthcare professional throughout these challenging times to ensure that they are ‘Living Well’.
CPNI ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING The Annual General Meeting of the Company was held by the Chairman and Directors of the Board of CPNI on 25 February 2021.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting took place remotely using Zoom technology.
MR NEIL J MCKENNA RIP CPNI recently learned of the passing of Mr Neil J McKenna, a community pharmacist and contractor based in Derry/Londonderry whose remarkable dedication to the profession and commitment to his patients was such that he was involved in running of the pharmacy until recently and as he approached his ninetieth year.
Our thoughts are with his extended family circle at this time.
WELL PHARMACY ROLLS OUT MCLERNONS DMS TO NI PHARMACIES
In November, Well Pharmacy completed a successful roll out of the new McLernons Dispensary Management System (DMS) across its nine pharmacies in Northern Ireland.
The new DMS brings many benefits to the pharmacy teams, enabling team members to scan prescriptions into the system avoiding the need for manual entry. Many have commented on a ‘significant increase’ in the efficiency with which they are able to label prescriptions and access patient records and information.
New touch-screen PCs which integrate much faster with the McLernons system have also been introduced and bring a “fresh and modern look” into the dispensary too. The system is highly intuitive and while this is the biggest change that can be made in pharmacy, the teams picked up the new processes quickly and easily. A key reason for Well choosing the McLernons system for its pharmacies in the region was the fact that the product had already been designed specifically to support services in Northern Ireland and has improved ways of working.
‘The changeover was smooth and efficient with any challenges ironed out same day or next day
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with great support from the team at McLernons,’ said David McLornan, Area Operations Manager at Well Pharmacy. ‘We have adapted to working with the new system quickly and can already feel the benefits from a more efficient system.
‘While supporting the roll out, all our teams across Northern Ireland were pleased with the level of training and support provided by McLernons, especially as this had to be done in a COVID-19 secure way to keep everyone safe during the pandemic.’
‘We were delighted that Well Pharmacy chose McLernons to be their pharmacy IT partner in Northern Ireland,’ added Keith McLernon, MD of McLernons. ‘At McLernons, we pride ourselves on the support and service which we offer our pharmacies, and this doesn’t stop after a successful installation.
‘Our engineers and trainers worked hard, particularly with the restraints imposed by the COVID-19 regulations, to ensure that every Well Pharmacy team were confident that they could safely and efficiently dispense using our system. I hope that we continue to enjoy a long and happy relationship with Well.’
Keith McLernon
David McLornan
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