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Going above and beyond for patients

Award Winners Interviews

Going above and beyond for patients

Independent Pharmacist of the Year Simon Harris tells Saša Janković his team at Cadbury Heath Pharmacy & Health Clinic in Bristol have immersed themselves in their community… 

Simon Harris' journey in pharmacy is one that crosses continents as well as companies. After beginning his career at Boots, he moved to Australia before returning to the UK to work in various sectors, including an independent pharmacy and a multinational start-up.

His entrepreneurial spirit led him to open two pharmacies and after a successful stint with Day Lewis as professional services development manager he founded Cadbury Heath Pharmacy in April 2021.

Situated on the outskirts of Bristol, Cadbury Heath Pharmacy & Health Clinic serves a diverse population in a predominantly deprived area.

Along with his team of two pharmacists, two dispensers, two apprentice dispensers, two part-time delivery drivers and five part-time medicine counter assistants, Simon has driven significant business growth, with monthly prescription items increasing by 26 per cent and the pharmacy's turnover doubling, despite the challenging trading conditions of recent years.

Expanding services

The pharmacy offers a range of NHS services, including Pharmacy First, hypertension monitoring and flu vaccinations, alongside private services such as earwax removal, ear piercing, travel vaccinations, vitamin B12 injections and a monthly contraceptive clinic.

“Having two pharmacists who are currently training as independent prescribers, and another locum who is an IP has helped us proactively develop our services”, says Simon, “and this year will see us add weight management, and aesthetics to the list of what we can offer our customers.”

Pharmacy First has also been going well for Simon and his team. “At the very beginning I spent a lot of time with all the local surgeries and was active in training reception teams which has been key to its success”, he says.

“I think within the first month we had over 200 Pharmacy First referrals, and I remember one day I had 35, which was a bit of a killer, because if it's 10 minutes per consultation, that's six hours.

“The pharmacy is only open nine hours a day, so at that point I decided to put an additional consultation room in, and I got a second pharmacist as well.”

Community collaboration

This expansion was followed by the launch of the pharmacy’s travel vaccination clinic, adding to the pivotal role that Cadbury Heath Pharmacy plays locally.

“We are quite proactive in trying to make sure that we really are part of our community”, says Simon, “so we liaise with the library, schools, the foodbank, the local barbers and even the pizza place that's right next door to us to try to reach as many people as we can with information about healthy living and our services.

“The pizza place is especially useful and we’ve had people coming directly into us from there asking for a blood pressure check after seeing one of the leaflets we’ve left on their counter.”

The team is also kept busy running clinics off-site. “My second pharmacist has been very active in developing off-site services such as flu clinics”, explains Simon.

“In previous years we've done off-site flu vaccination sessions at the library which is just across the road from us, and we have started running blood pressure clinics there too.

“Cadbury Heath Hall, opposite the pharmacy, has activities like line dancing on, and once a quarter they have a blood donor van, so we’ve built up a link with them so that when the van's there we're able to go over and help with giving people blood pressure checks.

"We also distribute our healthy living leaflets tailored around health campaigns that are happening.”

In previous years, the pharmacy has been involved in providing mass flu and Covid vaccinations to homeless shelters and local mosques, in a link-up with Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) ICB.

“They were doing Covid vaccinations at various sites all across Bristol, and we offered to provide the flu vaccinations alongside it”, says Simon.

“We sent a pharmacist and a member of the team to go along to as many of the mass vaccination sites to try to reach a lot of people who don't have access to a GP because they are not registered or were homeless.

“My second pharmacist took ownership of it and expanded it to go to mosques and homeless shelters to be able to provide the service directly, which was great because it felt as though we were showing some use to the local community.

“And we were providing a service that many people said they’d never had before, which was rewarding from a professional point of view as well.” 

New year plans

Looking ahead to 2025, Simon recently recruited an ACT pharmacy manager to help him develop the business further.

“My main aim this year is to try and get the dispensing side of the business streamlined and more efficient, allowing me as a pharmacist to be more available to provide even more services,” he says.

“This includes continuing the development of Pharmacy First and the advanced services, NMS, all our private services and, particularly, to introduce new services like aesthetics.

“And, of course, I couldn’t do this without my fantastic team. To give just one example of many, we had a situation one Saturday about half an hour before we were closing where a lady came in feeling faint.

“I wasn’t there but the team took her blood pressure and the reading was sky high. As it was a Saturday afternoon, she couldn't get a same-day referral to the GP, and couldn’t get herself to hospital, so the team phoned 999 to get her an ambulance and stayed with her until it came – which by then was about four and a half hours after we had closed.

“She came back in the following week to say thank you very much with a box of chocolates. I was so proud of my team for being there for her, and I simply couldn’t do what I do without them either.” 

 

 

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