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Hannah Flynn reports.

I write up standard operating procedures for local services, which involves working with local PCTs and pharmacists, as well as national boards. If it is a new service, like the alcohol screening service Lloydspharmacy has introduced in Birmingham, I will research it, design and deliver the training. I will then oversee the programme to make sure it is delivered as we were anticipating.

Part of the appeal of the job is there isn’t a typical day. It is very varied and constantly changes. This week I have been in the office answering emails and queries but I have also been researching a new project and looking at how it could work in a pharmacy. I have to look for what guidelines are already out there.

But on another day I may be out talking to PCTs about implementing a service, or approaching charities. I am heavily involved with Diabetes UK and work with them to make sure what we do as a company and a community pharmacy group fits in with their guidelines and what they are trying to achieve. I need to be happy with the SLA (service level agreement), which is a kind of contract agreement between a pharmacy and a PCT, for anything which is diabetes- or substance misuse-related, and make sure we are not signing up to something we can’t deliver. I love talking to PCTs but I get very frustrated with how slowly local commissioning can work.

I spend one day a month as a community pharmacist, which I think is very important. I need to be able to see what community pharmacists are doing on a day-to-day basis in order to implement the most effective plans. I still deliver prescriptions and MURs on a monthly basis, as full-time pharmacists do. The rest of the time I spend developing service plans and researching and overseeing training for community pharmacists. I also develop e-learning packages for the Department of Health.

The highlight of my career has definitely been my latest project for alcohol screening in Birmingham. I developed this service and I am now overseeing the training of pharmacists in our local PCTs. We wanted to deliver this programme across the three PCTs in Birmingham, however, it has been so successful that the alcohol screening programme is about to be rolled out in Blackpool and we are in talks with two other PCTs. This kind of development really motivates me.

I have known I wanted to be a community pharmacist since my late teens. I went to Brighton University and worked at Boots during my summer holidays. I then did my pre-reg at a Boots store in Hampshire while I lived with my parents. Then, when I qualified, I worked as a relief pharmacist, which was good as it allowed me to work as a community pharmacist without having to worry about the retail and management side of the job. Due to my work at Boots while I was training, I felt I was well prepared for the realities of community pharmacy.

I became a district manager for Lloydspharmacy and then shortly after that I became responsible for the diabetes screening service in my district. At the time my area manager was a non-pharmacist and gave me the project to make sure all the pharmacies were ready to roll out the diabetes service in Southampton. That was how I became involved in developing local services for pharmacies to provide.

Though this role involves more than purely community pharmacy, helping people and caring for them still motivates me – whether it is a PCT, a branch manager or a customer enquiry.