Dispense the prizes: Two Falkirk area pharmacies up for national awards

The Acute Pharmacy and Community Hospital Pharmacy teams will go head-to-head at the gala dinner and awards ceremony on Wednesday, November 20 at Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza hotel.

Both teams have been shortlisted for helping to improve and enhance pharmaceutical care, leading to positive outcomes for local patients, reduced costs and greater collaboration with pharmacy colleagues from other hospitals.

Stephen O’Neill, NHS Forth Valley associate director of pharmacy for acute and specialist services, said: “The acute pharmacy team at Forth Valley Royal Hospital provides a wide range of services to both our multidisciplinary colleagues and the patients of Forth Valley.

"These includd services to support busy oncology and nutrition teams, comprehensive dispensary services and a wide range of clinical and prescribing services for both inpatients and outpatients.

“More recently, the team had to adapt their roles to support the introduction of a new robotic system within the hospital’s pharmacy which saw them working from a temporary dispensary a fraction of the size of the normal dispensary, with a smaller number of dispensing terminals.

“Overall, the team demonstrated excellent problem solving and resilience to overcome any obstacles as the scale of the project brought with it many unforeseen issues.”

Clare Colligan, NHS Forth Valley associate director of pharmacy for primary and community care services, added: “The pharmacy team working in our community hospitals is relatively new.

"However, they have come together to develop a new and more innovative approach to providing pharmaceutical care to local patients, taking a much more proactive role around reviews for patients taking several different kinds of medication with a real emphasis on value-based healthcare.

“The team now takes a ‘what matters to me’ approach when discussing patients’ medication with them. Their drive and enthusiasm has enabled them to deliver high quality services within existing resources.

"They have upskilled the pharmacy technicians to carry out tasks such as blood pressure monitoring and phlebotomy to support medication reviews. Patients have reported a real benefit to having their medicines reviewed and explained to them.”

Laura Byrne, NHS Forth Valley director of pharmacy, said she was delighted both teams have been selected as finalists for the prestigious national award.