Pharmacy is transition<strong>in</strong>g, and transition<strong>in</strong>g for the best. <strong>Pharmacists</strong> didn’t th<strong>in</strong>k they would be do<strong>in</strong>g the flu vacc<strong>in</strong>ation service and now it’s expanded to pneumococcal and sh<strong>in</strong>gles, and hopefully it will go on to <strong>in</strong>clude travel. You’ll always have people who secretly don’t like what you’re do<strong>in</strong>g. We have heard GPs say<strong>in</strong>g their surgeries are full of kids and full of elderly people, and what they do not have time for then is their private consultations, which is what their practices need. Their fees for the under 6s and over 70s are fixed, so if they had less of these attend<strong>in</strong>g, they wouldn’t be say<strong>in</strong>g they’re overwhelmed. Some doctors probably th<strong>in</strong>k that pharmacists are putt<strong>in</strong>g their hands <strong>in</strong> doctors’ pockets for the flu jab. But the first few years I was giv<strong>in</strong>g the flu jab, when I asked people if they’d gotten the flu jab before, they said no; which doctor’s pocket did I put my hand <strong>in</strong>to? And then those who said they had, when I’d ask when they last got it, it would be five years ago; so which doctor did I take that <strong>in</strong>come off <strong>in</strong> the last five years? I th<strong>in</strong>k the biggest challenge for pharmacy at the moment is prov<strong>in</strong>g our value <strong>in</strong> the public space. <strong>Pharmacists</strong> are great; I love our profession. We do a lot of unsung hero work that doesn’t get recognised because it’s always brought back to the price of drugs, which we play very little role <strong>in</strong>. Do you see the service expand<strong>in</strong>g? Yes, I do see it expand<strong>in</strong>g. There will be a time where you listen to a chest and hear a crackle and be able to advise patients to go to the doctor. But specialise <strong>in</strong> this first. My hope is to get tra<strong>in</strong>ed up so that I can educate others on it, which would improve access to this type of service to patients across the country. So you th<strong>in</strong>k this is a service that pharmacies nationwide should be provid<strong>in</strong>g? 100%, and I know for a fact that there are plenty of other pharmacists who will look <strong>in</strong>to a throat <strong>in</strong> an effort to try and see the dreaded white spots to be able to say, “You might need an antibiotic”. But it would be nice to design a protocol or a framework and put some referral criteria to that. We’re go<strong>in</strong>g to need collaboration with medical people to do that. But really, if we can tra<strong>in</strong> parents and patients to pop <strong>in</strong>to their pharmacy first to have a look, we can stop them go<strong>in</strong>g to the wait<strong>in</strong>g room, which is hold<strong>in</strong>g up an appo<strong>in</strong>tment for someone who really needs to go. What tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g will you and your staff undertake <strong>in</strong> order to provide this service? This has been a learnt-onmy-feet process. <strong>Pharmacists</strong> look at rashes every day and they know what <strong>in</strong>flammation looks like. I don’t need tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g to say, “That’s <strong>in</strong>flammation”, but I would love specific tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g to further educate me to be more specific about the potentials. When someone has an ulcer on their throat, what does that mean; what is the best course of action? When you see a tympanic membrane and you see a bulge on that, you know that’s abnormal; it’s swollen, that’s like a pre-perforation that’s on its way to burst<strong>in</strong>g. I would love the tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g for myself to be able to say, “I’ve been signed off to do that”. Just like with IM <strong>in</strong>jections. Initially we were tra<strong>in</strong>ed to give the flu jab and then they woke up and they tra<strong>in</strong>ed us to do <strong>in</strong>tramuscular and subcutaneous. So now if a patient of m<strong>in</strong>e asks me to do an <strong>in</strong>tramuscular <strong>in</strong>jection, nobody can say I’m not qualified to do it – because I am. I just need to f<strong>in</strong>d someone now who I can get the tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g from. I’ve thought about Queen’s University Belfast; I’ve thought about my old college professor Paul Gallagher to see if he’d have any sugestions on how to progress the idea. Queen’s might be a runner because they currently teach a prescrib<strong>in</strong>g course and as part of all that, they do your vitals, which <strong>in</strong>cludes otoscope work. What I want is someone to formally teach me how to properly hold an otoscope so that, even if the patient moves their head, you wouldn’t cause them any harm; how to conclusively say, “Well that’s strep throat, that’s bacterial tonsillitis or that’s viral tonsillitis”. And from that I want to design protocols that obviously I will use but, if I can, then go and tra<strong>in</strong> other pharmacists to do it, to start triag<strong>in</strong>g people properly, so that we can direct people appropriately. If I get that formal tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g, then I don’t th<strong>in</strong>k anyone can say that I’m not authorised to pass that <strong>in</strong>formation on to other people, which is what I really want to do. I want every pharmacy <strong>in</strong> every corner of the country to offer this and add it to their list of services that they offer <strong>in</strong> their pharmacy, which would help their bus<strong>in</strong>esses. The two-day mentor<strong>in</strong>g workshop with Bobby Kerr is a fantastic opportunity <strong>in</strong>cluded <strong>in</strong> the bursary. What do you hope to get from this workshop? I’m really look<strong>in</strong>g forward to it. We’re <strong>in</strong> operation 60 years; I’m only <strong>in</strong> pharmacy 10 years so a lot of transition has happened <strong>in</strong> that time. We are about to undergo a huge refit and completely transform how we look to people. The guts of it are go<strong>in</strong>g to be the same; the staff are go<strong>in</strong>g to be the same, the level of service is go<strong>in</strong>g to be the same and the quality of service is go<strong>in</strong>g to be the same. When you do that refit, it’s to freshen everyth<strong>in</strong>g up; it’s to make everyth<strong>in</strong>g look good and nice, and keep with the times and everyth<strong>in</strong>g like that. We don’t turn our staff over very much; everyone that is here is here at least five years. When you’re <strong>in</strong> the same place a long time, you develop bad habits. I’m not a retailer, I’m a pharmacist. I have my notions about retail<strong>in</strong>g, but I’m a pharmacist, I’m a caregiver. I’m there to help people get better from illness or manage them through illness. So I’m hop<strong>in</strong>g Bobby will come <strong>in</strong> and say, “You do that really well; that could be better; this needs to change”, and just to get that <strong>in</strong>sight from someone who is very successful <strong>in</strong> bus<strong>in</strong>ess. The Actavis Academy Tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g & Mentor<strong>in</strong>g Bursary was developed to support pharmacy bus<strong>in</strong>esses to access tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g and mentorship <strong>in</strong> order to be leaner, faster and stronger. The bursary consists of €5,000 towards tra<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g for the pharmacy and a two-day bus<strong>in</strong>ess mentor<strong>in</strong>g workshop with Irish entrepreneur and presenter of Newstalk’s Down-to-Bus<strong>in</strong>ess show, Bobby Kerr. Entries were judged by Mary O’Meara, Head of Regulatory Affairs, Actavis Ireland; Bobby Kerr; and Daragh Connolly, IPU President. 26 IPUREVIEW FEBRUARY 2017
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