Sponsored by Pfizer Healthy Partnerships
London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Pharmacy Team
Servicing the medicine needs of 9 million Olympics spectators across 35 competition venues is worthy of a gold medal in its own right.
The Olympics Pharmacy Planning Committee had four years to plan how to dispense prescriptions to the public, while providing pharmacy care to the quarter of a million people involved in the Games, including 16,000 athletes. It resulted in the most comprehensive Olympics formulary yet, which proved a valuable resource for the 1,500 doctors.
Pharmacy services were delivered by 100 volunteer pharmacists and technicians across three polyclinics in the athletes' villages. On top of the 6,000 prescriptions dispensed, the team also introduced the first Olympics minor ailments scheme, which resulted in more than 1,000 consultations and allowed pharmacists at the Games to contribute to the care of patients.
And the outstanding delivery of pharmacy services led the International Olympic Committee to appoint a pharmacist to its medical commission for the first time.
What the judges say
"This team clearly played a vital part in supporting the athletes, visitors and the whole Olympic community through providing an excellent pharmacy service"
Runner-up
HIV and hepatitis C pharmacy support service Superdrug, Newport, south Wales After discovering that his local hospital did not offer a home delivery service for HIV-positive patients, pharmacy manager Tim Morgan decided to set up his own. This was extended to include hepatitis C treatments, making use of the pharmacy's fridge space to store bulky injections that were taking up the hospital's limited storage space.
Last year, Tim used his own custom templates to provide 60 MURs to HIV patients and eight specialist reviews on hepatitis C patients. Those choosing to collect their hepatitis C medicine in person could expect an average waiting time of just five to 10 minutes, compared with up to an hour at the hospital pharmacy.
The pharmacy's home delivery service transported more than 200 prescriptions and contributed to an increase of 1,500 in the number of prescription items, making it the most profitable Superdrug pharmacy in the UK in 2012. Its success led to Tim being nominated by Superdrug to pilot a new HIV testing service.
What the judges say
"An excellent example of collaborative working across primary and secondary care to meet the needs of patients with specific and specialised needs... while it is localised in its impact currently, it demonstrates great innovation to support this important group of patients"
Also shortlisted
ACT on Asthma programme Rowlands Pharmacy In collaboration with GSK, Rowlands Commercial Services Department produced asthma training and support materials for 419 of its pharmacies. Its validated Asthma Control Test helped almost 4,000 patients with ‘poor' control, taking a quarter of them to ‘reasonable'. Antipsychotic medication audit Care Home Services, Boots UK Before each visit to a care home, the Boots team completed a clinical assessment of the medication history of each patient and worked with the care home to create an action plan for the use of antipsychotics. Dosette management software G Whitfield, Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear Manager Ian Mensforth used his skills as a computer programmer to design software to assist elderly patients to manage their medicine in dosette boxes. His software identified each medication and printed a sheet with the colour, picture and location of each. Inhaler technique advanced MUR scheme Community Pharmacy Greater Manchester The service, headed by chairman Peter Marks, was developed to offer an improved MUR for COPD and asthma patients with poor inhaler control and included pharmacist and specialist nurse training. Early results showed up to a 45 per cent increase in ACT scores.
Back to C+D Awards 2013 winners
]]>