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From Saturday staff member to pharmacy manager, Victoria Pharmacy’s Arunoday Lekkala was named Pharmacy Technician of the Year at the Independent Pharmacy Awards. Saša Janković caught up with him…

With 20 years’ experience working in community pharmacy, Arunoday Lekkala’s journey to become a pharmacy technician has encompassed many roles and responsibilities, and he is keen to take on even more.

Starting as a Saturday staffer stocking shelves in a Lloydspharmacy branch, he progressed to become an accredited checking technician and a pharmacy technician after completing NVQ level-3 courses, as well as an assessor course which allowed him to evaluate students pursuing NVQ Level-2 and Level-3 pharmacy services.

Now a pharmacy manager – a role he has held since 2020 – Arunoday looks after a team of five locum pharmacists, two pharmacy students, one counter staff, a dispenser and a trainee pharmacy technician at the busy Victoria Pharmacy in London.

Vital interventions

With several GP surgeries nearby and a majority of elderly patients, the pharmacy provides essential pharmacy services along with advanced offerings including flu vaccinations, CPCS, NMS and hypertension case-finding.

The hypertension service in particular has long been a vital intervention for Arunoday’s patients, with the pharmacy often referring patients back to their GPs for further evaluation and timely treatment.

“We’ve been offering blood pressure checks and lifestyle advice to our customers long before the latest hypertension service was commissioned”, explains Arunoday. “I used to buy patients a little diary and get them to come see me every week or two to record their blood pressure so we could see if lifestyle changes could help them bring it down. If not, they could take the diary to show their GP and get further help from them.”

Now the service is commissioned from community pharmacies Arunoday says “It’s great to get paid for it now, although not everyone – or even all the GPs – know that we provide it, and it’s free”. As a result, Victoria Pharmacy has done its own advertising to raise awareness of the service, and seen customer numbers increase, but that’s not the ultimate goal for Arunoday.

“We also want to help our customers understand why their blood pressure might be high, and of course we can fit them with a 24-hour blood pressure monitor and refer them on for medicine from their GP if necessary”, he says.

“Not everyone wants to take blood pressure medicines either, but I can explain why they need it and how it can help”, he adds, “which is all part of making people feel more comfortable to talk about their health and open up to us.”

Building relationships with customers in this way has seen Arunoday refer people on to a variety of other services, and he and his pharmacy’s quick response even led to the early diagnosis of cancer for one patient.

“A gentleman came in to buy some constipation treatment but when I realised we had seen him a couple of times already for what he thought was IBS I urged him to get it checked out”, says Arunoday. “He wasn’t too keen but I explained that the test could be delivered and returned by post with no need for an appointment. Thankfully he decided to go ahead with it because the result came back showing he had cancer, and he came back to thank me for helping him catch it early.”

Community connections

Arunoday's managerial role goes beyond growing the business to encompass building goodwill among the pharmacy’s mainly Jewish and Iranian community. 

Actively engaged in local outreach, he participates in blood donation camps, is part of the local Jewish community WhatsApp group and, thanks to promoting his pharmacy’s services in various languages to cater to the diverse community, has helped to nearly double the number of prescriptions over the past three years. Arunoday and his team also work with residential homes and a nursing home where they provide training to staff and discuss medication with residents.

Another focus is liaising with local secondary schools to encourage students in years 11 and 12 to consider the pharmacy for their work experience placements. “I feel so much passion for the profession that I want to inspire young people to see what it is like”, says Arunoday.

“They come for two weeks and don’t really care where they are because they are enjoying not being at school for a change, but after a couple of days with us they love it. All the students we have hosted so far have asked if we have any part time work in the holidays, and some have even gone on to take the pharmacy dispensing course and they still keep in touch.”

Extra responsibilities

Alongside the extra work that Pharmacy First is creating for community pharmacy, Arunoday is supportive of the Department of Health and Social Care’s plans to update legislation to give pharmacy technicians in England, Scotland and Wales new powers to supply and administer medicines under patient group directions (PGDs).

“We’ve been waiting for this for such a long time and I welcome it with open arms, because why not”, he says. “Technicians can do so many services, and of course we understand we don't have as much clinical knowledge as pharmacists to issue medicines in some areas, but not all of them.

“I have a lot of experience after 20 years working in the pharmacy, so if I am able to get CPPE competency and provide that to show I have sufficient knowledge in, say, a particular vaccine, why not? 

“Just think back to the pandemic, when anyone could be trained to be a Covid vaccinator. Or take ear infections as another example – if I can show that I have the knowledge and competency why can’t I use a PDG to supply treatment?

“Technicians take on a great deal of work in the pharmacy and do a great job. With all the new services making things even busier for community pharmacists, they need all the help they can get.”

Pictured: Arunoday Lekkala (left) next to Cyrus Hodivala on behalf of Meditech, the sponsors of the Pharmacy Technician of the Year award.