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Getting ready for 2023

A message from Claire Nevinson, Pharmacy Superintendent:

I’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and reiterate my sincere thanks for your hard work and dedication in delivering exceptional patient-centred care throughout 2022. As we head into a new year, it’s important that we take time to reset our focus on leading for pharmacy, whilst also securing and maintaining high professional standards and robust patient safety governance.

As the healthcare sector continues to face funding and workforce challenges combined with the cost of living crisis, which will impact team members and patients alike, it’s important to draw upon our heritage of providing excellent care for patients in challenging times, to be proud of what we do to support each other and our communities as a profession, and to embrace opportunities to innovate in how we deliver patient care. I know that the emergence of Strep A and iGAS has been particularly concerning for parents and families across the country and I have been inspired by the care you have provided, dealing with supply issues and managing frequent changes in Serious Shortage Protocols, doing what you do so brilliantly for each and every patient and customer. Thank you. 

I encourage you to not only celebrate together the exceptional care that you continue to demonstrate but to pause, reset and prepare for the coming year. We’ll continue to see changes in pharmacy, driven by external factors but also introduced internally, as we settle into the new Healthcare Business Unit and its leadership changes. Fundamental to embracing change and innovation is to ensure that the basics are right, that you feel engaged and connected as a team and have a strong operating platform which enables you to make a positive difference and be proud of what you do every day. I am excited to see innovation and change in our operational processes – such as the Defined Duration Clinical Check and Assisted Due Date Dispensing – that we’ll introduce into more stores in the coming months, to provide you with opportunities to use your time in a more impactful way. I look forward to sharing examples of success and best practice with you where these changes have made a difference. I’m also excited to welcome more Independent Prescribing capability into our stores as we see opportunities emerge to establish community pharmacy prescribing services across England following its successes in Scotland and Wales.

And finally, what’s most important to me is that you take the time to look after your own wellbeing and that of your teams as a priority. Self care, kindness and compassion are key to enable you to reset, to feel assured and energised and to continue to lead for pharmacy in this new year.