Pharmacy Team of the Year Award Winner

A pharmacy functions at its best when there is a group of people with the same ambition to provide excellent healthcare to their customers, which this year’s winners, St Albans Pharmacy, most definitely have.  After reading their entry, there was an outpour of praising comments from the judges. To share one of many: “The level of service being offered in this pharmacy is not just above and beyond but is to a completely new level. The community are so lucky to have them!” said Richard Stephenson, operations director at Right Medicine Pharmacy Ltd.

Community comes first

Made up of a core team of seven staff members, the team is “enthusiastic, cheerful, and functions as an extended family for staff members as we all strive to provide high standards of customer service and patient care to every individual we serve,” their entry wrote. Through clear communication and the shared vision to provide every patient with an excellent standard of care, the team strive to make “each patient [feel] as though they are important to us and are at the centre of our job role”. Making concerted efforts to know each patient by name to “instil a sense of dignity” and creating an environment where each customer feels they can have delicate conversations with a team member is a service St Albans provide, that cannot be ordered or quantified. The team are conscious of who their community is – a diverse demographic of mainly over 65s – and tailor their customer approach to better serve these customers. The team speak English, Urdu, French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian, amongst others, which enables them to effectively communicate with customers and allows customers to speak more freely, too. The team are also aware of the needs of this community and tailor their services accordingly, making mental health support a permanent feature, along with the stop smoking, weight loss, weaning, Covid and flu immunisation services – to name a few!

Give, give, give!

Building on what they already provide to their customers and patients daily through the pharmacy, the St Albans team are also heavily involved in fundraising for their community. For the third time, St Albans organised their own fundraising event for Children in Need. “Each year, team members are fully involved and take the lead in organising raffle tickets, prizes, fancy dress themes, children’s competitions, and in providing goods to sell such as fruit hampers and Indian delicacies. This year, we are thrilled to have raised an amazing £1,014.08 for Children in Need 2023. This event is a central part of our relationship with the community. It provides an integral thread of working together with them to achieve a common goal,” the team explain.

The care for the community seems to be never ending, and it is plain to see why the team at St Albans are such an integral part of their community.