Pharmacy staff across Forth Valley have been praised for their exceptional performance and commitment during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

NHS Forth Valley’s Associate Director of Pharmacy for Primary Care, Laura Byrne, said their hard work and resilience in delivering key pharmaceutical services for patients, and maintaining the medicines supply chain has been a source of pride across Forth Valley. This work has been widely acknowledged and recognised by both the Health Board and the wider public.

Both community and hospital based services established new ways of working to make sure that every patient in Forth Valley could get timely access to medicines they required. One important example has included the development of a daytime and out-of-hours urgent medicines supply process for care home residents. This has been warmly received by local care home staff and the care home clinical team as an exceptional example of multidisciplinary working.

Community pharmacies have also been busy, opening every contracted day to provide access to critical medications and pharmaceutical care. And they have been delivering the new Pharmacy First Scotland Service which enables the public to access personal consultations, healthcare advice and treatment for many common health conditions.

In the hospital setting, pharmacy has become involved in a national co-ordination system to make sure that every Health Board in Scotland has an equal supply of medicines. And NHS Forth Valley’s Mental Health Pharmacy Team has provided invaluable guidance in relation to high risk medicines such as clozapine.

Pharmacists working in GP practices across the Forth Valley area have been able to keep a close check on local supply levels and the local pharmacy team within substance services has worked closely with key workers to make sure patients can still access medicines in a way which both safeguards them and the public.

Laura Byrne said: “The professionalism, determination and resilience from all our pharmacy staff and services continues to be critical for the delivery of key health services to local people and for maintaining our medicines supply chain during the pandemic.”