Two teams from NHS Forth Valley are in contention for the prestigious ‘Hospital Pharmacy Team of the Year’ at the 2024 Scottish Healthcare Awards.

The Acute Pharmacy and Community Hospital Pharmacy teams will go head-to-head at the gala dinner and awards ceremony on Wednesday 20 November at Glasgow’s Crowne Plaza hotel.

Both teams have been shortlisted for helping to improve and enhance pharmaceutical care, leading to positive outcomes for local patients, reduced costs and greater collaboration with pharmacy colleagues from other hospitals.

Stephen O’Neill, NHS Forth Valley Associate Director of Pharmacy for Acute and Specialist Services explained: “The acute pharmacy team at Forth Valley Royal Hospital provides a wide range of services to both our multidisciplinary colleagues and the patients of Forth Valley, including services to support busy oncology and nutrition teams, comprehensive dispensary services and a wide range of clinical and prescribing services for both inpatients and outpatients.

“More recently, the team had to adapt their roles to support the introduction of a new robotic system within the hospital’s pharmacy which saw them working from a temporary dispensary a fraction of the size of the normal dispensary, with a smaller number of dispensing terminals. Teamwork and flexibility were essential to maintain services for patients during a period of high disruption.

“Overall, the team demonstrated excellent problem solving and resilience to overcome any obstacles as the scale of the project brought with it many unforeseen issues.”

Clare Colligan, NHS Forth Valley Associate Director of Pharmacy for Primary and Community Care Services, said: “The pharmacy team working in our community hospitals is relatively new, however they have come together to develop a new and more innovative approach to providing pharmaceutical care to local patients, taking a much more proactive role around reviews for patients taking several different kinds of medication with a real emphasis on value-based healthcare.

“The team now takes a ‘what matters to me’ approach when discussing patients’ medication with them. Their drive and enthusiasm has enabled them to deliver high quality services within existing resources and they have upskilled the pharmacy technicians to carry out tasks such as blood pressure monitoring and phlebotomy to support medication reviews.

“Patients have reported a real benefit to having their medicines reviewed and explained to them and medicines which are of particular risk to older people are reduced or discontinued where possible, reducing the risk of falls and complications.”

Laura Byrne, NHS Forth Valley Director of Pharmacy, added: “I’m delighted that both our acute and community hospital pharmacy teams have been selected as finalists for this prestigious national award. Not only does it recognise the hard work and dedication of all our pharmacy colleagues, it also highlights the fantastic working relationship between the two teams who work closely together to support patient discharge arrangements.

“I wish both teams the very best of luck at the awards ceremony and hope everyone has a fantastic time celebrating their outstanding contributions to local health services across Forth Valley.”