Happy New Year!

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 all of your hard work and dedication in delivering exceptional patient-centred care throughout 2023. As we head into a new year, it’s important that we take the time to re-set our focus on leading for pharmacy and securing, and maintaining, high professional standards and patient safety governance.

This year, we will see changes in pharmacy driven by external factors but also introduced internally as we continue to innovate and modernise our dispensing process to free up your valuable time to deliver care and services to patients.

We welcome the launch of Pharmacy First and the introduction of NHS Independent Prescribing pathfinder services in England and I look forward to the part we will play in Boots in not only delivering these services successfully, but demonstrating the impact that these services will have on patients and communities. 2024 sees the long-awaited launch of the Department of Health and Social Care’s open consultation on Pharmacy Supervision. Changes following this consultation are expected to modernise medicines legislation and empower regulators to create a framework in which pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and our wider pharmacy teams can thrive, working to the top of their scope of practice. The ambition to enable pharmacy technicians and pharmacists to better meet the needs of patients in their communities will be realised through change, operational innovation and leadership. I encourage you all to look forward to and embrace these changes over the coming year. Of course, success can only be built on solid foundations so I ask you to ensure the basics are right, you are engaged and connected as a team, and have a strong operating platform to set you up for success. I look forward to sharing examples of success and best practice with you where changes have made a difference over the coming months. 

Finally, what’s most important to me is that you take the time to look after your own wellbeing as well as that of your team members, 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.