A great community pharmacist has many strings to his or her bow. Whether you run your own pharmacy, act as superintendent or work as a manager or locum, you strive to be the best.
You will be a leader in your field, combining the day-to-day running of the pharmacy with leading edge practice, be it clinical, business, or management. Tell us how you have maximised your contract, developed clinical services, built links with patients and peers, and championed community pharmacy.
An all-rounder who doesn't compromise one aspect of the job for another, you should be able to show how you have engaged the whole pharmacy team to help your patients.
Judging criteria
Leadership qualities and the applicants ability to perform at a level consistently above their peers
Originality and innovation in delivering a range of pharmacy services
Making the transition from classroom to community pharmacy is a big step for pre-reg graduates. And the best will be able to demonstrate an ability to combine clinical knowledge with experience of daily practice to deliver services that benefit patients.
The winner of this award isn't just your regular pre-reg, he or she will have set themselves apart from their peer group with their drive, ingenuity, ideas and commitment to make a difference to their patients. Tell us what you have done and why, how you did it and what you have learned from the experiences that will help you in your future career.
Like Usain Bolt, you’re no slouch out of the starting blocks. Whether as a new manager, a relief or locum, or a primary care pharmacist, you have achieved more than you’d believe possible in the five years since registration.
Tell us how you’ve worked hard to develop your skills and network with your peers, as you set the foundation for a successful professional career.
With an appreciation of how community pharmacy is developing and the opportunities available, tell us how you are always looking to improve your knowledge and the services that you offer your patients.
Whether you’re a pharmacist, technician, superintendent, office manager or area manager, you have an innate ability to make things happen.
Your terrific management skills and ability to see the wood for the trees mean you can help turn a failing business or service into an award-winning initiative.
A great motivator, tell us how you have helped your colleagues to achieve their goals, helped the pharmacy exceed its contractual requirements, or helped your company successfully rollout initiatives.
Your can-do attitude means you hit targets and come in on budget. A broader category than Community Pharmacist of the Year, this award is open to anyone who holds a manager post.
For every great pharmacist there's an equally excellent technician. With an eye for detail, an ability to multitask and a willingness to go the extra mile, the winner of this award will make everything tick in their pharmacy.
Whether you have improved safety or efficiency in the dispensing process, taken on clinical services, management responsibilities, or mentored colleagues, your entry should demonstrate what you've achieved, how you did it, and the measures of success.
The role of technicians is rapidly expanding and this is your chance to show how you are making a difference to your patients.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation in your working environment
Ability to make the most of your skills and training
Ability to work with your pharmacy colleagues & local health professionals
Assistants are the face of pharmacy and deal with millions of patient requests every year. And a great assistant is as knowledgeable about OTC medicines as they are about health and beauty products.
The winner of this award will be a friendly and familiar face to their customers and an example to their colleagues. Simply doing the job well isn't enough - the winner needs to go a step further. Whether you have helped recruit patients to your pharmacy's services, delivered health promotion activities, or forged links with your local community, the C+D Awards is your opportunity to show how important you are to the pharmacy team. Entry can be by nomination or by self-entry.
Judging criteria
Knowledge of OTC medicines and retail skills
Ability to deliver great customer service and professionalism in your job
Role model for other pharmacy assistants
Impact on your colleagues, customers and local community
MURs are fast becoming a central plank of pharmacy practice. Whether you work with your PCT or GP or whether it's an opportunistic service, MURs allow pharmacists to engage with their patients on a 1-2-1 basis and demonstrate the benefits of good pharmaceutical care.
As well as showing how you have found the time, skills, knowledge and support from your team to make MURs a routine part of your daily practice, your entry must demonstrate the impact on your patients. Whether you saved a life, spotted an ADR, or picked up an interaction, tell us how you are using MURs - targeted or otherwise - to make a difference to your patients.
You must submit a sample MUR for assessment, while audits and testimonials are also encouraged.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation in delivering MURs
Ability to communicate with patients and healthcare colleagues
Ability to embed MURs into your practice
Ability to meet the needs of the local population with MURs
From substance misuse to anticoagulation clinics and from vascular screening to palliative care, the array of clinical services available from community pharmacies is more diverse than ever.
It goes without saying that your service has to be well executed, sustainable and funded, but above all else it has to demonstrate that it meets a local health need. Tell us how you identified the need and made it happen, but most of all tell us how it's made a difference to patients.
Entries can be from an individual, pharmacy team or multidisciplinary team, but the service must be delivered by or from community pharmacies.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation of the service
Ability of the service to meet a defined need
Impact of the service on patients
Ability of the service to integrate pharmacy services with other primary and secondary care health services
Ability of the service to promote pharmacy
Clinical knowledge, training and degree of expertise required to deliver service
A large part of community pharmacy's enduring success is down to its unique ability to seamlessly combine healthcare services in a retail environment.
And in a competitive world, pharmacy teams - from the biggest multiples to the smallest essential pharmacies - have to work hard to deliver high retail standards.
From EPoS to category management, and from co-ordinated sales and marketing campaigns to dedicated staff training, tell us how the changes you have made have put your pharmacy on the retailing map. Entries must include information on the gains made.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation of the retailer
Business acumen, marketing skills and strategic planning shown to deliver this retail service
Degree of success achieved
Ability of the service to enhance the healthcare element of the business
This category is about the changes you have made to deliver a positive benefit to your business. It doesn't matter how small or big the change but more how it has moved your business forward.
There could be a multitude of developments you have made, but here's a few suggestions to get you started: improved the dispensing service through new workflow processes; revamped your PMR systems; introduced a robot dispenser; had a shop refit; relocated into bespoke premises; cut your carbon footprint; won a commissioning bid; developed a new professional service; found a novel way of delivering MURs; rolled out a hub and spoke dispensing model; set up a virtual head office; or developed a mobile service.
The list is endless, but the judges will want to see how your business and/or your customers have benefited.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation shown in the development
Quality of planning, attention to detail, and roll out strategy of the development
Behind every great pharmacy is a great team. Dedicated, hard working and a unit greater than the sum of its parts, the winners of this category could be a pharmacy team or a multidisciplinary team (with a majority pharmacy component).
Tell us how your team works together, their strengths and skills, how they help and support each other, how they contribute to the success of the pharmacy, how they have solved problems or gone the extra mile to help their patients, and how they make their pharmacy a hit with the customers.
There are some truly magnificent pharmacy teams out there, so don't miss your chance to get the recognition that you deserve.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation shown in building and developing the team
Ability of the team to work towards a common goal and perform at a level consistently above their peers
Take your pick - professional, retail, clinical, business or management - there isn't a field in which community pharmacy has not continued to innovate.
Web-based repeat prescriptions, fully integrated robotic dispensing, tailored clinical services, CPD support, hub and spoke dispensing - these are just some of the ways in which pharmacies are excelling.
Tell us everything about your innovation, such as how you came up with the idea, how you made it happen, the hurdles you overcame, and the benefits for you, your team and your patients when you finally succeeded.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation of the offering
Quality of planning, attention to detail, and roll out strategy of the service
Prescribing status has been a hard-fought success story for the profession, and many of the pioneering pharmacist prescribers are making a real difference to the quality of care provided to their patients. And whether you're an independent or supplementary prescriber, the C+D Awards is your chance to celebrate your success.
Tell us how you have made a difference, for example by improving medicines compliance, creating formularies, developing multidisciplinary working, or helping your colleagues to achieve similar successes. But most of all tell us how your work has benefited patients - whether it's cutting GP or hospital visits, redefining patient pathways, increasing access to services or measurably improving health outcomes - this is where you will score with the judges.
Entries must include proof of your prescribing qualification.
Judging criteria
Originality and innovation of the service provided
Benefit of the service to the NHS
Benefits of the service to patients
Clinical knowledge and level of expertise required for the service
Forget Sir Alan Sugar's apprentices and don't worry about the Dragons' Den entrepreneurs, community pharmacy is one of the leaders of the pack when it comes to business.
The sector, which has some of the country's biggest retail operations standing alongside thousands of successful small businesses, is blessed with some of the finest business minds. So whether you're a senior director, area manager, PCT pharmacist or a single-handed contractor and whether you work for a multinational company, LPC, wholesaler or pharmacy, now's your chance to get the recognition your efforts deserve.
Tell us about your vision and how you make it happen, tell us how you unite your team and how you develop those all-important contacts, and above all tell us how your efforts make a difference to you, your colleagues, and your customers. Entry can be by nomination or by self-entry.
Judging criteria
Leadership and motivation qualities
Understanding of pharmacy
Success achieved with the resources available to them
With 12 categories to choose from, there’s plenty of opportunities to showcase your achievements. Make sure you read the category guidelines carefully and, remember, details of the criteria the judges will be marking you against are only available via the online entry process (which you can access via the link at the end of each category).
