Ask Your Pharmacist Week: How your primary care pharmacists can support you

30 October-6 November 2023 marks Ask Your Pharmacist Week – an annual campaign to help us shine a spotlight on pharmacists and highlight the fantastic work that they all do. This year the theme is ‘Meet Your Local Pharmacy Team’.

 

To mark the week, Nilam Kalyan (pictured left) and Gopal Patel (pictured right), Advanced Specialist Community Pharmacists from our Brent Health Matters team tell us more about their role, why they chose to be pharmacists and the various events they have coming up.

 

What does your role as an advanced specialist community pharmacist entail?

Nilam: “We work within a specialist service called Brent Health Matters which was set up to reduce health inequalities in the borough. As pharmacists, we provide expert advice on medicines and work closely with various professionals including doctors, nurses, dietitians, and physiotherapists to ensure patients receive the best possible care.

 

“Part of our role includes carrying out home visits to people in the community who may not be directly engaging with services for many reasons such as language barriers, lack of understanding of the healthcare system or even computer literacy.

 

"Gopal and I conduct detailed medication reviews in patients’ homes and make necessary recommendations to GPs and practice pharmacists to implement changes such as reducing the number of medicines patients take or ensuring they are taking the correct ones for their long-term conditions. These visits help us to tailor the care provided to the individual’s needs via a holistic approach.”

 

Gopal: “We also hold various community outreach health events to raise awareness about the support we offer. It is a great opportunity for us to have a chat with people who may have any questions or need advice on staying well and preventing disease; help to quit smoking; keeping active and having a healthy diet; or personalised support to get the most from your medicines such as providing advice on how to take medicines or how to manage their side effects.

 

"At these events we can carry out various health checks to assess any risk of potential medical conditions that could develop, spot any warning signs, and discuss prevention methods. These checks can include having height, weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), blood sugar, blood pressure and diabetes risk measured and follow up discussions will be based on the findings of the checks.”

 

Why did you want to be a pharmacist?

Nilam: “I enjoy talking and interacting with people. As pharmacists we can spend time with patients more than other healthcare professionals. I became a pharmacist because of my keen interest in medicines paired with the opportunity to make an impact in patient care.”

 

Gopal: “Pharmacists are experts in medicines and play a key role in helping patients feel better and gain the most out of their medicines. Combining this with my passion for chemistry, motivated me to pursue a career as a pharmacist.”

 

What do you enjoy the most about your role?

Nilam: “What I enjoy the most about my role, is the ability to be able to spend time with our patients and build great relationships. Being in this role, and working within this great team, we have been able to make impactful changes to our patients’ lives to help them enhance their quality of life. To me, that is most rewarding about our role.”

 

Gopal: “One of the most enjoyable aspects of the job is taking part in our community outreach events where we engage with many people from the community. Patients are always at the heart of everything we do so being able to raise awareness and offer support to help is a key highlight for me.”

 

What events do you have planned for Ask Your Pharmacist Week?

Nilam: “We will be out in the community across Brent to answer any questions people may have on how a pharmacist can help, medicine queries, or what to do to manage your blood sugar, blood pressure, and reduce the risk of diabetes. We will also be raising awareness of how pharmacists from all sectors can help patients.

 

Date	Where	Address	Time
Tuesday 31 October	Willesden Brent Hubs	Willesden Green Library 95 High Road London, NW10 2SF	10.30am-1pm
Wednesday 1 November	Lindsay Baptist Church Foodbank	The Mall  Kenton, HA3 9TG	12noon-3pm
Thursday 2 November	Kilburn Library	42 Salisbury Road, Kilburn, NW6 6NN	10am-1pm

 

“You do not need an appointment or need to be registered to any service, you can just drop by and have a chat with us.”

Since January 2023, the team have held over 107 community outreach events to help and support patients. One patient said: “The pharmacist was helpful, put my mind at ease! I felt comfortable to ask questions that were on my mind.”

 

Nilam and Gopal have also been shortlisted for a prestigious 2023 HSJ Award for the fantastic work they are doing to reduce health inequalities in Brent.