Editor's view: Sue Sharpe tops the list

Commenting on Ms Sharpe claiming the top spot, C+D editor James Waldron said:

When C+D last ran the Pharmacy 50 four years ago, I predicted that the top spot would go to Ms Sharpe. She may have been receiving more than her fair share of criticism at the time, but I argued that there was no denying that PSNC’s role in contract negotiations affects every community pharmacist in England.

Of course that was in 2013, when Ms Sharpe was still a lightning rod for concerns about the country's imbalanced pharmacy contract. Maintaining a constructive relationship for funding negotiations meant PSNC often seemed subdued in its defence of the sector.

But the landscape fundamentally changed on the afternoon of December 17, 2015, when the Department of Health (DH) sent an open letter to PSNC setting out its plans to cut funding.

Community pharmacists in England are still dealing with the consequences of that letter. For PSNC – which had effectively been sidelined by the government – it was an opportunity to finally speak out on the sector’s behalf.

Ms Sharpe wasted no time in penning a strongly worded response to the DH. By September, she was publically introducing pharmacy minister David Mowat as representing a sector that “feels bruised, betrayed and badly let down”. Ultimately, it led PSNC to a heroic – if unsuccessful – High Court battle against the funding cuts.

Faced with a government unwilling to listen to the sector, there was sense that PSNC – and Ms Sharpe – had finally found its voice.

It makes Ms Sharpe’s surprise announcement that she will retire at the end of the year all the more poignant. She leaves the role as the single most influential individual in the sector – as voted for by C+D readers – and her successor will have a tough job living up to that legacy.

Explained: How the results were decided

How was the shortlist compiled?

The C+D team created an initial list, and then opened up suggestions to readers on the website and on Twitter in December 2016. The resulting shortlist of 122 individuals was entered into the C+D Pharmacy 50 app, which appeared on the C+D homepage and its dedicated Pharmacy 50 page for four weeks. The full Pharmacy 50 list can be viewed in C+D’s interactive feature here.

Was the app cheat-proof?

Effectively, yes. The app worked like ‘top trumps’ – randomly selecting pairings from the shortlist. This prevented users from voting multiple times for themselves or any other preferred individual.

Instead, a vote was cast by clicking on whichever of the two figures the reader considered most influential; this loaded up another pair of names at random. A score for an individual was generated using the number of times they appeared in the app versus the number of votes they received in total (giving their percentage of ‘victories’ in the app). The individuals were then ranked by score into the final order.

How did C+D define "influential"?

We left this up to you. The Oxford Dictionary defines "influence" as "the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behaviour of something". It can therefore be positive (eg a pharmacist who inspires their peers) or negative (eg an influential policy maker who does not prioritise community pharmacy). C+D's clinical editor Kristoffer Stewart also wrote a blog on how "influence" on pharmacy can be decided.

Who didn’t make the cut?

Of course, having the C+D team and readers select a shortlist of 122 individuals means that more than half could never make the final Pharmacy 50. For reference, C+D has published the remaining individuals from the shortlist below, some of whom only missed out on the top 50 by a handful of votes.

Please note that this list is in alphabetical order, and is not ranked by vote count:

• Olutayo Arikawe – Manager, The Priory Community Pharmacy
• Jay Badenhorst – Superintendent pharmacist, Whitworth Chemists
• Reena Barai – Owner, S G Barai Pharmacy
• Ornella Barra – Co-chief operating officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance
• Karen Baxter – Director, British National Formulary
• Martin Bennett – Managing director, Associated Chemists (Wicker)
• Kenny Black – Managing director, Rowlands Pharmacy
• Richard Bradley – Pharmacy director, Boots UK
• Nadia Bukhari – Senior teaching fellow in pharmacy practice, UCL
• Alistair Burt – Conservative MP and former pharmacy minister
• Tom Byrne – Secretary general, British Pharmaceutical Students' Association
• Peter Cattee – CEO, PCT Healthcare and PSNC board member
• Zameer Choudrey – CEO, PCT Healthcare and PSNC board member
• Oliver Colville – Vice-chair, All-Party Pharmacy Group and Conservative MP
• John D'Arcy – Managing director, Numark
• Sid Dajani – UK rep for Pharmaceutical Group of the EU, and RPS board member
• Mair Davies – Chair, RPS Welsh pharmacy board
• Kim Davies – Health and wellbeing pharmacist, Celesio UK
• Michael Dugher – Former Labour MP
• Andrew Evans – Chief pharmaceutical officer for Wales
• Tess Fenn – President, Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK
• Stephen Fishwick – Head of communications, National Pharmacy Association
• Chris Ford – Head of parliamentary affairs, National Pharmacy Association
• Sanjay Ganvir – Superintendent pharmacist, Green Light Pharmacy
• Vaughan Gething – Welsh cabinet secretary for health, wellbeing and sport
• Thorrun Govind – Locum pharmacist
• Gerard Greene – Chief executive, Community Pharmacy Northern Ireland
• Michael Holden – Principal associate, MH associates
• Nick Hunter – Chief officer, Doncaster, Nottinghamshire and Rotherham LPCs
• Ken Jarrold – Chair of government board to "rebalance" medicines legislation
• Hala Jawad – Locum pharmacist and RPS public health network moderator
• Will Jennings – Lloydspharmacy's Sainsbury's integration lead, Celesio UK
• Salim Jetha – CEO, Avicenna
• Dilip Joshi – Chief officer, Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham LPC
• Nick Kaye – Superintendent, Nick Kaye's Pharmacy; and chair of Peninsula LPF
• Tricia Kennerley – Vice president, Walgreens Boots Alliance
• Dr James Kingsland – President, National Association of Primary Care
• Daniel Lee – Chief operating officer, Pharmacy2U
• Peter MacNab – Managing director, Superdrug
• Babir Malik – Manager, Weldricks, Scunthorpe; OTC lead for RPS pre-reg team
• Catherine McDermott – Operations director, Celesio UK
• Ben Merriman – Treasurer, Cumbria LPC and member of area prescribing committee
• Garry Meyers – East Midlands and South Yorkshire representative, PSNC
• Marvin Munzu – Media pharmacist and branch manager, Priory Fields pharmacy
• John Murphy – General secretary, PDA Union
• Chaand Nagpaul – General Practitioners Committee chair, BMA
• John Nuttall – Chief executive officer, Well
• Michelle O'Neill – Northern Irish Assembly member and Sinn Féin Leader
• Ash Pandya – Chief executive, Essex LPC
• Amit Parekh – President, British Pharmaceutical Students' Association
• Stefano Pessina – CEO, Walgreens Boots Alliance
• Graham Phillips – Contractor, Manor Pharmacy Group
• Adrian Price – Superintendent pharmacist, Tesco
• Mark Raffaitin – Commercial manager pharmacy lead, Tesco
• David Reissner – Senior partner, Charles Russell Speechlys LLP
• Paul Robinson – CEO, Boots Pharmacists' Association
• Shona Robison – Scottish cabinet secretary for health, wellbeing and sport
• Aamer Safdar – Pharmacist education lead, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust
• Martin Sawer – Executive director, Healthcare Distribution Association
• Bharat Shah – Managing director, Sigma Pharmaceuticals
• Paula Sherriff – Treasurer, All-Party Pharmacy Group
• James A Skinner – Executive chairman, Walgreens Boots Alliance
• Amanda Smith – Committee member, Community Pharmacy West Yorkshire
• John Smith – Chief executive, Proprietary Association of Great Britain
• Paul Smith – CEO, Phoenix Healthcare Distribution
• Liz Stafford – Policy development manager, Rowlands Pharmacy
• Kristoffer Stewart – Clinical and CPD editor, C+D
• Dr Mark Timoney – Chief pharmaceutical officer for Northern Ireland
• Faisal Tuddy – Superintendent pharmacist, Asda
• James Waldron – Editor, C+D
• Noel Wardle – Partner, Charles Russell Speechlys LLP
• Xrayser – C+D blogger and pharmacist