It’s important for pharmacy teams to get their voices heard and share their knowledge and experience both locally and nationally, says NPA’s head of communications Stephen Fishwick 

Pharmacy is too often not part of the local or national media conversation on key healthcare issues. To a degree, this is down to a certain coyness within the pharmacy sector – a reticence to engage with the media. But pharmacists and their teams should not be so bashful about the wonderful support they give day in and day out. Of course, good PR is not your prime motivation for great patient care, but there is no shame in talking publicly about it – your local radio station awaits your call!

The NPA is offering free-of-charge media training, which began with a webinar entitled ‘Managing the Media – practical training for pharmacists’, and will be interesting and useful for the whole pharmacy team. 

The programme of training is designed to achieve a step change in media consciousness and confidence within the independent sector. Overall, the training will ensure that participants are well placed to advocate for community pharmacy in newspapers, radio and TV, as well as understand how to handle publicity at moments of crisis, such as a harmful dispensing error, and how to use the media to promote their own pharmacy services. 

We need to grow media capacity at grass roots, so that positive coverage both locally and nationally can be generated and media opportunities can be taken as and when they arise.

If you missed the webinar, it’s not too late to sign up for the rest of the media training. It’s delivered by experienced journalists who specialise in broadcast media training and for the first time involves one-to-one broadcast interview coaching for those who wish to develop themselves to another level of confidence.