Jaya Authunuri embodies community pharmacy.
“If you ask anyone around me, they’ll say Jaya is not a pharmacist because he works there – it’s his way of life,” he tells C+D.
We’re catching up just 12 days on from the C+D awards, where Jaya won Community Pharmacist of the Year, and his trophy is already in pride of place above his desk.
Read more: What a night!
“It inspires me to do work if I have it right in front of me,” he says. “I know that I’ve been passed on a responsibility to uphold the standards and do even better.”
The award came as something of a shock to Jaya on the night. He was nominated four years ago and admits he was a little too self-confident back then.
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“This time round I came to enjoy the ambience and networking,” he says. “My mindset this time was, whether it’s win or lose, my name is up there and I’m happy about it.”
Ambivalence towards victory notwithstanding, it was definitely something of a relief to Jaya’s accompanying party when his name was called out as a winner.
“I had my wife and my close friends there. One of my friends had to buy a tux just for the awards. He said it better be worth it – and it definitely was!”
Comfort and connection
Family has been at the heart of Jaya’s approach to the profession since the start of his career. He came to specialise in diabetes and heart failure as a result of his father being diagnosed when he was younger and wanting to make a difference.
But his proclivity for helping the community meant he didn’t stop at helping relatives.
“I made an oath to myself [that] I would treat every patient like I would treat my own family member,” Jaya says.
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He now runs weekly diabetes clinics in Hull and says he tells his newly diagnosed patients, “I made it happen with my own dad, so I’m going to make it happen with you, but you need to be on the journey with me.
“That gives them instant comfort, it connects them.”
During Covid, Jaya developed connections with palliative care teams. “I tried to say goodbye to patients when I could, there were many days I did that. It’s only fair to say goodbye to them.”
“When you have that ethos of treating patients like your family members, you do get emotionally connected to them as well,” he says.
Pride in Place
Jaya’s care for the community doesn’t stop at the pharmacy’s doors. He vice-chairs West Bridlington’s Pride in Place committee, a government regeneration initiative that invests in disadvantaged neighbourhoods over a 10-year period.
While he was brought in primarily to address health inequalities, his actual impact is far more wide-reaching. Just before sitting down to speak with C+D, he had emailed the board’s chair to look into setting up a directory of local businesses – because he doesn’t want “any more local businesses to die”.
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Jaya’s approach to his community involvement is holistic. “That’s what I enjoy about the work, it’s all interlinked. It’s all for the same people, whether I’m in or outside the pharmacy,” he says.
“It’s now not just a pharmacist’s job, it’s far more than that,” he says.
Right at home
Like everywhere he has lived and worked, Jaya feels right at home in the small coastal town he had no roots in a decade ago. He says he “can’t see anything else” but living in Bridlington now.
“At conferences, people ask me where I come from and I say: ‘Google the lobster capital of Europe’. We catch the best lobster!”
“I hosted some industry people here, and I treated all of them to lobster,” he says. “Next time you’re around let me know before and I’ll get you a lobster!”
Not the sort of dispensing C+D expected to discuss with an esteemed pharmacist, but a very welcome offer nonetheless.
Political ambitions
Far be it from Jaya to rest on his laurels, he has his sights firmly set on expanding his influence and ability to help people. Having stood for Conservative council elections in 2023, he is set to do so again next May.
His end goal is even greater. “I hope one day I can play a role in politics like Sadik [Al-Hassan] is at the moment,” he says. Certainly lofty ambitions, but ones that don’t seem too out of reach for a character like Jaya.
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Throughout the conversation it becomes clear that legacy is important to Jaya. It doesn’t come from a place of ego, but rather a genuine desire to know he has made a positive impact on people’s lives.
“One day I need to look back and think I’ve done a good job, and the good job needs to look like a healthy community.”
The Community Pharmacist of the Year award was sponsored by Teva.
