Participating in health campaigns is a great way for pharmacies to raise awareness of conditions and boost engagement with the community, says Leanne Beverley

Community pharmacies are perfectly placed to carry out health awareness campaigns, whether it’s a one-day event or a longer term campaign. Each year, pharmacies are required to take part in up to six campaigns at the request of NHS England and the Department of Health. 

On 9 June, Monarch Pharmacy took part in the British Heart Foundation’s “Wear It Beat It” campaign. Our health champion suggested we support the day, as it would be a great opportunity to promote the British Heart Foundation and its work and encourage customers with heart conditions to discuss them with us.

On the day, all the staff wore something red, as this is the British Heart Foundation’s principle colour and wearing it is one of the main campaign activities. We also arranged a raffle to win a hamper of red items and a “guess how many sweets in the jar” competition – with red sweets, naturally! We had balloons and posters adorning the pharmacy and leaflets for customers to take away with lots of information about heart-related conditions. 

The day was a great success. Lots of customers joined in and we raised over £150 – money that will go towards life saving research. Of course, we shared the event on social media and took photos of our health promotion zone to add to our healthy living pharmacy evidence folder. 

Currently, our pharmacy is taking part in “Be Clear on Cancer”, a national campaign aiming to improve early diagnosis of cancer by raising public awareness of the signs and symptoms and to encourage people to see their GP as soon as possible. This year, the campaign is running from July to October.

We are displaying posters and leaflets about cancer in the pharmacy, discussing advice during MURs and placing leaflets in the prescription bags of target groups. All staff are trained on the campaign as well as symptoms that could indicate cancer and when a patient should be referred to a GP – for example, if they’ve been coughing for three weeks or more, have started to become out of breath easily or have noticed blood in their urine. You can get involved by ordering promotional materials via: www.orderline.dh.gov.uk.

We’ve also been involved in promoting Stoptober and Dementia Awareness Week and last year we held our first Macmillan coffee morning. This raised a fantastic £265.41 and we are hoping to do the same this September. As well as helping raise money and awareness for Macmillan, it was a good opportunity to spend time with our customers and community. We even had a couple of customers who do not get out of the house very often visit us for a coffee and a cake – and a chat, of course!

Not only do campaigns and events raise awareness of various health conditions and services, but they also help cement the pharmacy’s place within the heart of the community. 

Leanne is an accuracy checking pharmacy technician and supervisor at Monarch Pharmacy, Coventry. She is also an NVQ/BTEC assessor for pharmacy training providers.