Service provision is becoming crucial for community pharmacy’s survival. Someone making the most of the opportunities here is Sandra Jennings from The Riverside Pharmacy in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, who was Highly Commended in the Service Excellence category, sponsored by HRA Pharma.

Sandra leads on care home services, looking after more than 70 residents in three local homes. This involves dispensing complex medication regimens into multi-compartment compliance aids, and she also assists pharmacy manager Chris Mulimba when he delivers training to the care home staff on safe medicines administration.

In addition, Sandra also runs the pharmacy’s weight management service, and has chalked up many successes including helping one patient to reach her pre-wedding target weight, another to reduce his risk of diabetes, and another to lose enough weight to have surgery that had previously been considered too risky. The scheme is extremely popular, attracting referrals from across the county.

Currently completing her pharmacy technician training, Sandra would like to qualify next as a health champion so that she can deliver more services at her healthy living pharmacy. She would also like to become a stop smoking advisor, explaining: “It’s a good fit with the weight management.”

The judging panel praised Sandra, with Mike Holden, principal associate at Pharmacy Complete, commenting: “What a great ambassador for community pharmacy and healthy lifestyles.”