Chief pharmacist: David Heller
Principal clinical pharmacists: Joanne Rhodes and Jane Allen
Operations manager: Heather Fowler
The pharmacy department has around 80 staff, mainly made up of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and pharmacy assistants. We provide services for inpatients and outpatients at SASH. Within the pharmacy we have specialist areas.
Clinical pharmacy
We have lead pharmacists for medicine, surgery and critical care, cancer services and women’s and children’s health (WACH) services. They all have specialist knowledge within their areas and lead a team to provide a service to their patients. Whenever possible, our pharmacists join the ward round teams with the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professional, so that they can advise on treatment and answer questions relating to medicines. Some of our pharmacists are able to prescribe medicines directly to patients.
Medicines Information
The Medicines Information department is able to answer queries from staff on all aspects of medicines, and is responsible for running the Patient Medication Helpline. The team also works to provide information to the wider healthcare team, such as through bulletins on new medicines and how to manage treatment if there is a supply shortage.
Dispensary
Every month, we dispense around 18,000 items. Our dispensary manager leads the team that ensures each medicine is dispensed safely and efficiently.
Store
Our pharmacy store receives all deliveries of medicines. Pharmacy store assistants go to the wards to check levels of stock, order what is needed and then send supplies. The store also supplies medicines directly to other areas, including our inpatient dispensary, in total issuing around 20,000 items a month.
Audit, research and clinical trials
We have a specialist clinical trials team who ensures that the medicines are supplied safely. In addition we encourage our pharmacy staff to undertake research into all aspects of medicines, from making them work more effectively to evaluating how we can we can further improve our services. We also regularly undertake audits in similar areas.
Purchasing and homecare
Led by one of our senior technicians, our procurement team purchases all inpatient medicines, ensuring they are of the expected quality and purchased at the best price. We also have a team that looks after homecare medicines – long-term medicines that are prescribed by our doctors but supplied directly to patients’ homes through other pharmaceutical companies.
Formulary
Our Formulary team are responsible for ensuring any new medicines that are to be used at the Trust are appropriate. This includes working with healthcare teams outside of the hospital, such as local GPs.
IT
Pharmacy staff are important members of the IT team in areas relating to medicines. Discharge prescriptions are currently prescribed electronically, which allows information to be sent electronically to the GP as the patient leaves hospital. Following a successful pilot of EPMA for inpatient medicines, SASH is now putting plans in place to extend this to more wards.
Education and Training
Our department has an excellent reputation for the training and support we provide. Read more about training and development with the SASH Pharmacy team >>
