Pharmacy Team of the Year 
 
Harlow Town Pharmacy, Harlow 

Sabina Yasmin and her Pharmacy Team of the Year have been hugely important to their local community and even more so during the pandemic. 

The pharmacy has four part-time staff, one full-time dispenser and a pharmacist. Three staff members are NVQ2 qualified dispensers, one has been taking a dispensing course and the other is a clinical pharmacist from Kerala who has been enrolled on the counter and dispensing course and is looking to join the UK Pharmaceutical Register. 

When Sabina took over as manager a couple of years ago stock had not been properly managed, patient relations were not great and morale was low. The pharmacy switched its dispensary system to Proscript and started a repeat dispensing service, allowing them to gain the trust of patients. 
During the pandemic, the number of prescription items dispensed and counter sales shot through the roof, but Sabina lost one staff member for one week and one for three months to the virus. However, the other team members worked well together to ensure they kept up with demand, making sure dosette boxes were made up and methadone scripts for their 100 patients were changed as required. 

“It's been a hard time. We have been pushed and our capabilities have been tested but we all came together. We lost a couple of team members because they were ill and some people had sick notes, but we made sure patient safety was a top priority,” Sabina said. 

“I remember one day a staff member had to go off to deal with an emergency. I was by myself for a few minutes and I thought: 'Is this what the next few months are going to be like?' But it was okay. I called one of my other members who came in. We just did the best that we could. 

“One of my staff was in a car accident and was off for a month but the way everyone came together, I didn't even have to ask them to do extra hours. It showed how well we know each other and want to support each other.” 

Sabina's team has risen to the challenge. They took the number of patients receiving dosette boxes up from around 20 to 130 patients - most of which are delivered for free - and boosted prescription items to around 8,000 a month. The pharmacy also invested in a Methameasure and has 100 methadone/buprenorphine patients who come in regularly. 

The relationships with local GP practices improved during the immensely difficult period last year. The pharmacy advised the surgeries about patients who would benefit from shielding and those who needed dosette boxes and other assistance. 

“One of my methadone patients is over 60. He has leukaemia and was shielding. We had to get his script changed to monthly,” Sabina said. “It was hard because he was shielding and someone else had to come collect the medication on his behalf. We were able to liaise with the drug and alcohol team to sort this out for him.” 

This winter the pharmacy has been working closely with surgeries to provide flu vaccinations. Other services offered include blood pressure monitoring, appliance dispensing, prescription delivery, smoking cessation, EHC, supervised consumption, inhaler technique and healthy living advice.

Sabina's pharmacy has also applied to be a vaccination centre and the hairdresser next door has agreed to offer space and staff to help. She also said her neighbour's sweet shop had volunteered to assist. 

“We're trying to do 3,500 vaccines a week and my little pharmacy would not have been able to cope with that kind of volume,” she said. 
 
This Award was sponsored by Precision Marketing Group. 
 
 
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Good Life Pharmacy, Derbyshire 

The team, run by Lindsey Fairbrother, has always worked hard as a group but Covid-19 has provided additional challenges and brought them closer together. 

The team includes two pharmacists, two dispensers, counter assistants, apprentice dispensers and pharmacy students. 

They have grown the number of services they offer and individually taken on more responsibility. The dispenser has been training as a checking technician and the pharmacy has taken on an additional apprentice. 

The two locums are trained in ENT examination and vaccination, and over the past 18 months the team has developed a private prescription service through Lindsey’s independent prescriber qualification. 

Private income has grown significantly, counter sales have increased, gross profit has risen and the pharmacy was the top flu vaccination provider in the area. The team has been brilliant during the pandemic too. 

Shielded patients have received deliveries of medicines from staff, often when they have been making their way home. Other deliveries have been organised into schedules that local helpers deliver for the pharmacy. 

The pharmacy supports the training of staff and hosts pre-registration pharmacists. The team also provides a travel vaccination service, ENT consultations, UTI and skin treatment, EHC, supervised consumption, flu vaccinations, wheelchair hire, veterinary medicines, private weight loss and stop smoking services. 

The pharmacy also applied to be part of a pilot to research the use of virtual consultations in pharmacy through NHS England.