Claire Blake-Rowland’s holistic approach to supporting patients coupled with her acute understanding of the role pharmacy has to play helped her to achieve the Highly Commended accolade in the Outstanding Contribution category.

When Claire started at Buxted Pharmacy in East Sussex, pharmacy was all new to her. But dealing with the public was well within her skill set as she had previously worked in the hotel and leisure industries as well as in an accountancy firm, and a garden centre.

In the two years since she joined Buxted, Claire has become a healthy living advisor and weight management champion, and is currently completing her dispensing assistant course. She counsels patients on inhaler technique, blood pressure management and use of high risk drugs, and has a keen awareness of how and when to signpost patients to services such as the Samaritans. It is little wonder that the judging panel concurred with Paul Scott-Harris, pharmacist at Buxted Pharmacy, who described Claire as “the little whirlwind”. Joanne Taylor, accuracy checking pharmacy technician and Awards judge, was particularly taken with Claire’s understanding of the changing role of community pharmacy and her willingness to take on new challenges and services.

Claire says: “Pharmacy is no longer about just the medicines; it is more about the individual taking the medicine, so we need to care about the patient and understand them too.” However, she adds that understanding how a pharmacy operates and the services it offers are key to success, as this is the only way to grow both patient numbers and OTC sales. As one of three finalists from Buxted Pharmacy, it isn’t surprising that teamwork is high on Claire’s agenda: “Although we have recently gained accreditation as a healthy living pharmacy, we have consistently demonstrated support for healthy living,” Claire says. “We are dedicated, professional and caring, and it is nice to show how well we do.”