Read a profile of one of PICS’ new starters: about their team and their work, and how they help patients.
What is your role and how will it benefit patients?
My role is to support practices and patients with all that is medicine related. This can be from assisting with prescription queries from the surgery administration team, to reviewing medication with the patient on discharge to ensure understanding of any changes and of any new medication.
I offer patients a better insight to their medication and work with them to streamline medicines, making them easier to take and equipping them with the tools they need for better health outcomes. Working with individual patients will accumulate into a healthier patient population, we will free up GP time to spend with the more acutely unwell patients, and I’ll help reduce the amount of wasted medication.
A large part of my role will be to support the more complex, multi-morbidity patients with their medication, focusing on those over the age of 65 with several medications on their repeat prescription. I hope to improve medication compliance and de-prescribe, where possible. I will also be focusing on the management of chronic conditions.
How else do you work with the GP and Practice staff?
My role is really important in providing an excellent pharmacy service and safe and up-to-date medicines for the practice. For example, I take the lead on ensuring we comply with statutory and regulatory guidelines when it comes to medicine: finding suitable alternative medicines when there are shortages; responding to relevant warnings and recalls from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA); assisting in the medication reviews required for meeting the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF); and carrying out medication safety audits related to PINCER to ensure the safest prescribing possible.
I also seek out good practice, proactively identifying areas where as a practice we can improve, and working with my colleagues to implement ways to improve safety in prescribing.
What is your favourite part of your day?
My favourite part of the day is when I watch my kids in their various sporting activities and yes, this is every day – sometimes two in one day! I beam with pride and there is nothing more enjoyable to me than watching them excel.
You’re new at PICS – welcome! What are you excited about from working in PICS?
I am looking forward to tapping into the vast experience of the pharmacists and other teams across PICS.