I was very pleased to be joined by Paul Forsyth and Barry Maguire to discuss the application of the collaborative care model in pharmacy.Paul, Barry and I explore how the collaborative care model may be applied to the pharmacy profession. Alienation, detachment general demoralisation and isolation are all consequences of pharmacists not feeling tru…

Georgia C. Richards DPhil (Oxon), BSc (Hons I) is a research fellow at the University of Oxford. We sat down to discuss fundamentally why healthcare, and specifically pharmacy, appears to be consistently poor at reporting, sharing and learning from significant and fatal incidents involving patients. EBM Special Study Theme (SST) Lead for the underg…

We were delighted to welcome Yasmin Karsan to the podcast to chat all things artificial intelligence. Episode Synopsis Johnathan and Yasmin discuss the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning on pharmacy practice. They acknowledged the difficulty in fully understanding this technology and its potential impact on the in…

We were delighted to be joined by Janice Perkins to chat about the current state of UK pharmacy. Janice has over 30 years of leadership experience in community pharmacy. She’s the former Superintendent Pharmacist of Well Pharmacy, responsible for patient safety & well-being, regulatory & professional standards and delivery of the NHS contractual fr…

Leadership in Scottish Community pharmacy circles has been alive and kicking for some years now. The policy document 'The Right Medicine' published back in February 2002 was a seminal moment for Scottish community pharmacy and paved the way for the way pharmaceutical care has evolved north of the border. In the heady days just after Scottish devolu…

Trevor Gore and I return with an introductory podcast revealing our plans for 2023. We’ll rattle through the UK pharmacy news, catch up on stories beyond pharmacy and discuss our monthly featured interview. It will hopefully be a lot of fun.

Patient group directions have traditionally been a ‘stop gap’ option, especially in the era before pharmacist independent prescribing. This debate will explore the future of patient group directions by community pharmacists. Many have lauded patient group directions as an excellent tool to extend the scope of practice of community pharmacists. Howe…

The debate based on whether or not screening for atrial fibrillation should be deployed nationally in Scotland has been progressing for some years now. There is precedent for such schemes elsewhere but so far there has been no nod to such a national service in Scotland. Does the evidence stack up in favour of such scheme? Should pharmacists be invo…

The Aural Apothecary Podcast has captured the imagination of pharmacists across the land and has provided some light-hearted relief from what has been a tricky few years. The podcast is a lighthearted take on the world of medicines, pharmacy and healthcare in the UK from Jamie, Gimmo and Steve the Chemist. They have welcomed a number of guests onto…

Getting involved in research activities can feel daunting. As pharmacists, it could be argued that we don’t prioritise research in our careers enough. This session will involve a conversation between some of the top pharmacists involved in research in the UK. With decades of experience between them, we are hopeful that they might share their insigh…

Is the rise of robotics in the sector a threat or an opportunity? Learn about the range of robotic options available in pharmacy. Hear first-hand feedback about the use of the various types of robots. Understand the workflow implications. Find out about the return on investment on the various robots on the market. Understand some of the downsides o…

For a number of years, there has been a movement towards advanced practice for pharmacists. Our panellists for this session has been right at the sharp end of developing and championing this movement. Learning objectives from this session include: Gain an understanding of what advanced practice is. Take part in debate around why consultant level pr…

Many pharmacists dislike failure. Research literature around this topic has characterised pharmacists as procrastinating perfectionists. If we assume these traits are well observed and we are aware of them then how do we as pharmacists ensure there is space to fail, learn and grow. Gary Redfeather Academic pharmacist Clinical, medical leadership, e…

Minna Eii is an Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner in Acute medicine. She is Vice-Chair of Sustainability at The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists and also a Member of Pharmacy Declares (Twitter: @PharmDeclares) environmentally conscious pharmacy professionals calling for climate health/action, leadership, education, declaration, divestment. You can vi…

Ade Williams is the Superintendent Pharmacist at Bedminster Pharmacy in  Bristol, also part of the prescribing clinical team at Broadmead Medical Practice, a local GP surgery and the Associate Non-Executive Director of the North  Bristol Trust. You can view all the sessions at the Future Pharmacist conference by clicking here. Thank you to our conf…

Listening to the patient voice has always been very important to us at Pharmacy in Practice. Dr Ruth Edwards was diagnosed with breast cancer a number of years ago and since then she has courageously faced into the disease and more than that has shared her experience with considerable candour for the benefit of others, not least her pharmacist coll…

There’s a big world out there beyond UK pharmacy and a few years ago Dr Catherine Duggan stepped out into it. As the CEO of The International Pharmaceutical Federation, she has demonstrated transformational leadership globally. Through this work, she has championed the role of the pharmacist in many countries around the world. We are extremely fort…

The future of Scottish pharmacy We are very proud to be joined by the newly appointed Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Scotland and Honorary Professor at the Robert Gordon University Alison Strath. Pharmacy in Scotland continues to thrive but what lies ahead? Alison has for years been one of the most visionary leaders in Scottish pharmacy so it is,…

David Wightman was one of the youngest ever funeral directors in the UK. He has over 28 years of experience in his sector. We were very lucky to have some of his time to discuss his insight into death and dealing with families at the end of life. We had a good chat about the topic of death and how pharmacists might make an input when people are goi…

We were very pleased to catch up with Leyla Hannbeck. Leyla is a pharmacist and CEO of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies. We chatted about all things community pharmacy and in particular explored Leyla's views on how to make working in community pharmacy a more attractive proposition for pharmacists.…

Going into this series (with an open mind) we have made a few assumptions about the current 'lie of the community pharmacy training land' and it is largely that there is very little investment in community pharmacist development above and beyond mandatory training requirements. As part of this series, we will talk to a range of key players in pharm…

This has been a very disruptive period in our recent history and community pharmacists across the land have been thrust to the fore. The public-facing side of community pharmacy has remained resolute but we know that behind the scenes everyone in the sector is tired. Despite this heroic effort and undoubted fatigue, we hope you can join us as we be…

Well, it has been a while since we have recorded a podcast on Pharmacy in Practice so when I was recently in touch with friend of PIP Jonathan Underhill I suggested we have a chat. And it was a fun, interesting and insightful conversation. We recorded the episode first thing on Monday morning after the England football defeat. We had a chat about G…

Laura Smith CTA is a Partner at Wylie & Bisset. We kick off a new season of podcasts on Pharmacy in Practice by talking to her about IR35. We have published a number of articles recently on this topic so thought it was time to have a chat with the experts. If you enjoy this episode and the PIP podcast please feel free to leave a review on your podc…

We recently had the pleasure of chatting to the founder and owner of Instant Dentist Aalok Shukla. Instant dentist is an innovative collaborative business that will help community pharmacies extend their digital impact but also deliver much earlier preventative dental care to people as they visit. We came back together to discuss the rapidly changi…

Ian Strachan is a community pharmacy owner contractor. He owns a number of pharmacies in England. He was the Chair of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) between 2014 to 2018. I have wanted to chat with Ian for a while now. He really has operated at the top of UK pharmacy politics for quite some time and has led the way with many innovative ini…

Failure to identify high-risk medication errors in patients with complex needs can have a fatal outcome, a recently published report warned. The report, published by Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), sets out a case where a medication error with warfarin contributed to the death of a 79-year-old man. The patient had suffered a fall at …

Graham Parsons is the Chief Pharmacist at Turning Point. He is a pharmacist with a wide range of experience in many aspects of pharmacy. As a specialist in Substance Misuse he has worked at both local, regional and national level (through the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, National Institute of Health and Care Excellence and Turning Point…

I have never met a pharmacist or pharmacy technician that does not dread the letter of complaint from the GPhC dropping through the letterbox. Unfortunately in the context of overall rising numbers of complaints being made by fellow health professionals and also by the general public, I felt it important to touch base with our colleagues at Hempson…

I was very proud and grateful to get the chance to talk to the Chief Executive Officer of the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) Duncan Rudkin. Duncan was very generous with his time and we discussed a wide range of topics. Time was limited so we didn't get through all the topics I wanted to but we did cover lots of ground. We ran out of time an…

We recently had the pleasure of chatting to the founder and owner of Instant Dentist Aalok Shukla. Instant dentist is an innovative collaborative business that will help community pharmacies extend their digital impact but also deliver much earlier preventative dental care to people as they visit. Aalok commented: "Through easy and affordable acces…

Darshan Negandhi is a Primary Care Network (PCN) clinical pharmacist. Previously he was Director and Superintendent Pharmacist at Lewisham Pharmacy in London. He has recently made the move to work within the PCN and is thoroughly enjoying it. We had a great chat about all things pharmacy. Darshan is very modest but has a fantastic ambition to becom…

Dr Andrew Radley is a consultant pharmacist in public health. He works in NHS Tayside and was recently a member of a successful team who managed to eradicate hepatitis C. He recently wrote to PIP explaining how 56 community pharmacies helped to eradicate hepatitis C in NHS Tayside. It was a real pleasure to discuss Andrew's recent activity around h…

David Wright, Professor of Pharmacy Practice from the School of Pharmacy at the University of East Anglia has lead an independent review of the roles and structures underpinning Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and the Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) in England. The review has been called at a time when the community phar…

Professor Harry McQuillan has been Chief Executive Officer of Community Pharmacy Scotland for 14 years. He has worked in a range of roles across pharmacy since qualifying as a pharmacist a number of years ago. Our paths have crossed a number of times over the years but given the exciting developments in pharmacy in Scotland, the timing of this inte…

Jonathan Burton is Chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scottish Pharmacy Board and he has been on the frontline in community pharmacy throughout the COVID-19 crisis. We caught up to have a chat about the myriad of unprecedented things that pharmacists and their teams have had to cope with over the last few months. Changes in legislation, dela…

Jasraj S Matharu is the founder of the Pre-registration and Newly Qualified Pharmacist Association (PNPA). He is currently a pre-registration student and has become involved with the Pharmacist Defence Association (PDA) as a union representative. I caught up with Jas to discuss the rapidly changing landscape for pre-registration pharmacists this ye…

Dr Emily Kennedy has worked as a prescribing support pharmacist in primary care in NHS Dumfries and Galloway for 16 years and now supervises 17 pharmacists working across general practice. Her varied and very successful career so far has involved education, research and work in community pharmacy. I was interested to discuss various aspects to her …

Stephen Hughes MBA, MSc, MPharm, is a consultant antimicrobial pharmacist at Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust. We were lucky enough to catch up with him on the podcast to discuss how he and his team have adapted to working life during the pandemic. We also discussed antimicrobial pharmacy at length. A fascinating conversation. In your vie…

In our latest podcast, we sat down with Chief Pharmacist Yousaf Ahmad. Amongst other roles, Yousaf is currently Chief Pharmacist at Care UK and was also recently appointed to the GPhC Council. We had a wide-ranging chat about how Yousaf has coped with COVID-19 in his current role. How has your life as a pharmacist changed as a result of COVID-19? H…

Our guest for this podcast was Andrea James. Andrea is a regulatory lawyer advising doctors, pharmacists, vets, teachers & other highly regulated professionals. Andrea is a partner at Brabners. She leads their Professional Discipline and Healthcare Regulatory team, providing vital insight to our wider Regulatory team and Healthcare sector group. Yo…

Our guest for this podcast is Andrea James. Andrea is a regulatory lawyer advising doctors, pharmacists, vets, teachers & other highly regulated professionals. She also loves animals, laughter and fairness. Andrea is a partner at Brabners. She leads their Professional Discipline and Healthcare Regulatory team, providing vital insight to our wider R…

I dropped Professor Zubin Austin an email out of the blue inviting him on to join me on the PIP podcast to discuss a number of aspects of pharmacy. I was delighted to hear the 'ping' of his positive reply landing in my inbox. We got together and had a chat about what it means to be a pharmacist and explored what many in our profession believe to be…

Emma was a 24-year-old pharmacy graduate. She had two degrees, was a high achiever and was making the most of her life. Sadly Emma took an overdose of both propranolol and citalopram. Emma called an ambulance, but her condition quickly worsened. Despite resuscitation efforts from both paramedics and medical staff in the hospital she was transferred…

I recently wrote an article about the Scottish NHS Pharmacy First service but I wanted to find out more so I got in touch with Director of Operations at Community Pharmacy Scotland, Matt Barclay. He was good enough to take time out from the ambitious schedule of NHS Pharmacy First engagement evenings to have a chat about what the new service might …

Sometimes you have to try something completely different to uncover new perspectives on age-old problems. The profession of pharmacy as we know it today has made huge strides since Jacob Bell founded the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1841. This podcast series will explore where we go next as a profession. We will find the most interest…

Gary Paragpuri is the former editor of the Chemist and Druggist magazine. He is now CEO of the specialist consultancy firm called Hub and Spoke Innovations. Hub and Spoke Innovations aims to help pharmacists and dispensing GPs grow their businesses and provide a better service for their patients through technology. Their flagship product is the Pha…

Greg Lawton is a pharmacist specialising in patient and medicines safety, staffing, data protection, privacy and healthcare policy. We were lucky to catch up with Greg to have an in-depth conversation about dispensing errors in pharmacy. There a few things that strike fear into hearts of pharmacists more than making a dispensing error. Making a dis…

Francesca Aaen is a pharmacist consultant and runs her consultancy called Aaen Care. Aaen Care delivers medicines and healthcare-related training, consultancy and advice to both private and public sector providers of health and social care services across the UK. Francesca has over the years had a number of NHS roles in care services and also throu…

Gavin Birchall is a pharmacist, designer and marketer who has created, led and marketed businesses at senior level and carried out the first research into the brand of pharmacy on the planet. Having spent 15 years in community pharmacy, practising in both independent and multiple owned pharmacies, Gavin has worked in academia, primary care and repr…