The Wiveliscombe Day Lewis pharmacy team’s innovative plan to supply the local community with a defibrillator saw them scoop the Highly Commended accolade in this category.

The Wiveliscombe branch of Day Lewis in Somerset is quite a distance from a hospital. The pharmacy team had long felt that anyone having a cardiac arrest would be very vulnerable as a result, and when Day Lewis CEO Kirit Patel passed away after a heart attack last summer, it gave the team the impetus to raise money to purchase a defibrillator.

Several fundraising activities took place, from bingo at the community centre to rafflles in the pharmacy and a collection tin on the counter. The team also applied to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) for a grant, which topped up the pot and meant they could buy the defibrillator plus a training device.

All seven members of the pharmacy team and around 40 local people have been trained on how to use the device, which delivers an electric current to the heart. It is housed in an unlocked cabinet on the outside of the pharmacy so that it is available as and when needed – and contains technology that analyses what is wrong with the heart’s rhythm so the person administering the “shock” doesn’t need to make decisions about how much voltage is needed. What’s more, it has been shown to improve patient outcomes in certain circumstances.

Tess Fenn, Awards judge and president of the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK, comments: “Having defibrillator emergency treatment available in the heart of the community is a simple innovation, but has far reaching potential to save lives.” The rest of the judging panel agreed, bestowing upon the team, led by pharmacist manager Sally Dugmore and pharmacy technician Bridget Foxwell, a Highly Commended in the Innovation category.