Former Lloydspharmacy superintendent pharmacist Victoria Steele has landed a new role in the sister company of the now-defunct community pharmacy multiple, Hallo Healthcare announced last week (November 24).

C+D last week (November 23) exclusively revealed that Lloydspharmacy has wrapped up its community pharmacy operations. 

Read more: Lloydspharmacy confirms 'successful sale' of all community pharmacies

But a Hallo Healthcare spokesperson told C+D that Ms Steele will remain in the business and is now the clinical director and chief pharmacist for Lloydspharmacy Healthcare Services (LP HCS).

LP HCS is a “group of Lloydspharmacy branches” providing pharmacy services to NHS hospitals, prisons, “community health trusts” and to the private sector, they said.

Read more: Lloyds appoints its first female superintendent pharmacist

It was formed “earlier this year to recognise its market-leading expertise in specialist pharmacy dispensing services”, they added.

According to its website, LP HCS provides outpatient dispensing to “over 62 NHS hospitals across the country”.

“An exciting step”

Ms Steele said that she was “delighted” with her new role as head of LP HCS’s “clinical direction” at this “critical time”.

She told C+D that while this part of the pharmacy sector was “smaller”, it was nonetheless “hugely important”.

Read more: Podcast – My journey to become Lloydspharmacy’s first ever female superintendent pharmacist

She added that she aims to help LP HCS “reach its full potential” with “the highest standards of service and patient care”.

Ms Steele said that her new role was “an exciting step” in her career that would see her spending more time developing “strong and stable, long-term partnerships” with LP HCS’s teams, NHS customers and chief pharmacists.

Read more: Lloydspharmacy superintendent: Roles in community not currently pharmacists' first choice

When Ms Steele was appointed as Lloydspharmacy’s superintendent pharmacist in September 2020, she was the first woman to hold the position in the multiple’s history.

Speaking on a C+D podcast in March last year, Ms Steele said that she had become Lloydspharmacy’s superintendent because she was “the right and best person for the job”.

Lloydspharmacy’s parent company, Hallo Healthcare, now controls four healthcare services companies that operate “independently of each other”: Lloydspharmacy Healthcare Services (LP HCS), wholesaler AAH, Lloydspharmacy Clinical Homecare and Lloydspharmacy Online Doctor.