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The Independent Pharmacist of the Year Gareth Hughes has established strong ties with local health providers while his work with shared care systems in Wales has caught the eye. Saša Janković caught up with him…

Gareth Hughes, who won the Independent Pharmacist of the Year award at the Independent Pharmacy Awards, has dedicated his career to community pharmacy.

After starting out at what was Co-op Pharmacy in 2006, he rose through the ranks at Sheppards to become superintendent pharmacist of Wales’ largest independent chain, before taking on a national leadership role with Avicenna as deputy superintendent and clinical lead. 

In 2018, he completed the independent prescribing (IP) course as part of the community pharmacy prescribing Pathfinder programme, and in 2022 he fulfilled his long-held ambition by acquiring Tynewydd Pharmacy in Rhondda Valley where he continues to drive innovative patient-centred care.

“I knew I wanted my own pharmacy eventually because although I enjoyed my senior roles at various organisations, I missed patient contact”, says Gareth.

“Working in management was great, but I didn’t feel like I was directly putting back into the community, and I wanted to have face-to-face conversations with patients and really feel like I was adding value to their health, rather than just seeing figures and consultation numbers.”

Growth and investment

It didn’t take long for his vision to come to fruition. In the first two years under his leadership, Tynewydd Pharmacy delivered nearly 9,000 consultations through independent prescribing and common ailments, 1,230 flu vaccinations, 840 emergency supplies and more than 250 discharge medicines reviews.

Since he took over, monthly prescription volume has grown 40 per cent, turnover has increased by 45 per cent and gross profit margin has more than doubled.

These achievements have enabled Gareth to invest in internal improvements for the pharmacy, including a four-room consultation expansion which is currently underway, and the introduction of a new Titan PMR system in 2023.

“What I found was when we were very busy, trying to do the clinical check almost as the last step was hampering the dispensing process for us”, says Gareth.

“But since installing the PMR, it just feels a lot more organised. I can be in the consultation room and still be notified when a prescription needs a clinical check because the bell alerts me, so nothing gets missed.

“I’m also excited about where the system is going, particularly around future functionality for private prescribing.”

Collaborative approach

Collaboration has been at the heart of Gareth’s success. He maintains strong ties with local GPs, practice pharmacists, clerks and care navigators, and has developed shared care and two-way referrals with local optometrists.

His pharmacy is now piloting UTI pathology testing and offers patients seamless triage, diagnostics and follow-up care – which has already proved invaluable.

One standout example involved a patient with the kidney infection pyelonephritis. Gareth was able to initiate diagnostics, co-ordinated with microbiology to confirm resistance, and liaise with the patient’s GP to ensure full recovery through collaborative follow-up.

This case bridged pharmacy, pathology and general practice, demonstrating the power of integrated care.

“Our service clearly highlights several benefits of offering UTI pathology testing”, explains Gareth.

“For starters, it opens up services for patients, particularly those over 65 who should have a urine sample check and allows patients to be referred directly to our pharmacy, instead of being pushed back to their GP.

“It also enables us to provides easier access to testing for patients with recurrent infections, and lets me handle cases more comprehensively, such as with our patient with pyelonephritis, where I was able to communicate the results to the GP so the person got faster and more joined-up care.”

Welsh Clinical Portal access

Expanding on his progressive approach to what a 21^st century community pharmacy should be able to do, Gareth is also the first community pharmacist in Wales with direct access to the Welsh Clinical Portal (WCP) and test request functionality, enabling safer prescribing and streamlined communication across healthcare sectors.

The WCP shares, delivers and displays patient information from a number of sources with a single log-on, across health boards boundaries, providing the infrastructure for electronic test requesting and access to millions of test results and clinical documents.

This allows clinicians across Wales to submit requests for pathology, radiology and other tests digitally, which streamlines the process from both primary and secondary care, reducing errors and delays compared to paper-based systems, and enabling a standardised, traceable, and efficient workflow with a clear audit trail.

“From our point of view, being able to access the WCP allows us to send urine samples through the portal, which generates stickers and barcodes for sample tracking”, says Gareth.

“I can also see previous urine sample results for patients, and the portal potentially opens up access to broader medical information, including X-rays and other medical records.

"When you look at what we'd be able to do in future as community pharmacists, having access to the WCP is a key step that really opens the door which could potentially expand to include more services in the future – depending on discussions with the local health board.”

Workforce development

Not content to simply develop his pharmacy’s offering, Gareth has also built a brilliant, service-led team, including two ACPTs – one of whom has won three national awards – a pharmacy technician and multiple students and trainees.

On top of this, Gareth is a designated prescribing practitioner for seven IP trainees, hosts undergraduate placements and has applied to host post-registration foundation pharmacists. He also sits on the Welsh Pharmacy Board and is the lead pharmacist for the Rhondda cluster.

Future ambitions

Never one to stand still, Gareth has a list of plans for his pharmacy, and for his team.

"We are just coming to the end of our extension project in the pharmacy with the expansion of our consultation rooms and this will enable us to offer even more NHS and private services”, he says.

"So, what I’d really like next is to have another independent prescriber working here to help us focus on delivering services that patients can't access through other parts of the healthcare system.”