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11/22/2011
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Community pharmacy kings
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Bina and Dushyant Patel will stop at nothing to ensure their public in East Ham receive top quality healthcare. It was therefore no surprise when they won the 2011 Pharmacy Business of the Year award, writes Neil Trainis...
Enthusiasm shell-cases every word Bina Patel utters as she recounts the moment her business, Blakeberry Pharmacy located just off a multi-cultural East Ham High Street, was announced as the Pharmacy Business of the Year for 2011 in front of a packed Park Plaza audience.
“It has sunk in now but it's certainly not forgotten. The first week was very exciting and it is still very exciting to have won the award, but at the end of the day, we have to carry on,” she says with an ebullience tinged with pragmatism. Bina and her husband, Dushyant, own two pharmacies within a stone's throw of one another and despite qualifying more than 30 years ago, the pair remain as passionate about their profession as they were when they first entered the industry.
“We put a lot of hard work into the pharmacy. The reason we're successful is because both myself and my husband love pharmacy,” she says. “That's why we take an interest in the essential services that we offer. Sometimes people are happy in what they do and can get complacent. They think 'I'm earning enough and I don't need to do any more.' You need to love it to go that extra mile.”
That extra mile comprises the sort of activities that many pharmacies do not engage in. In many ways, Blakeberry Pharmacy symbolises the evolutionary change the profession as a whole has to undergo. The Labour MP for East Ham, Stephen Timms, paid the couple a visit to launch the New Medicine Service at the pharmacy earlier this year.
Bina and Dushyant and their team of loyal staff, including the pharmacy manager, Shailesh Badiani, who has been with them for 25 years, have become more than just pharmacists. They have become rounded healthcare clinicians, offering a range of services, including smoking cessation, emergency contraception, TB support, chlamydia testing, anti-coagulation and warfarin services, a supervised methadone service, blood checks and a vascular risk assessment for the over-40s. There is also a pristine perfumery section and they intend to start a travel vaccination clinic.
“The reason our pharmacy is special is the team effort. Myself, my husband and the pharmacists, we put 100% effort into the services we offer the community,” she says. “We don't just do dispensing. We do essential services that a lot of pharmacies do not do.” Bina takes pride in revealing that Blakeberry Pharmacy has “the highest number of smoking quitters in our PCT area. We have quite a few trophies for that.” Indeed, they have received three successive smoking cessation awards in Newham and Dushyant was named Best Smoking Adviser in the borough, beating of competition from other health professionals, including doctors and nurses.
The pharmacy doubled in size after a refit which was described by Pharmacy Business' roving judge, Richard King, as having been completed “to the highest standards with the future of pharmacy services very much in mind.” The £600,000 project includes an area for addicts and three consultation rooms.
“Our shop has a clinical flavour,” she enthuses. “It's not just a cosmetic shop. It's a proper pharmacy where people can get looked after. All our services have to be accredited.” She finds the changing role of the pharmacist, from dispenser of medicines to holistic clinician, enticing. “You'll be surprised what the pharmacist does nowadays. Our role has become more professional and clinical.
“It has dramatically changed for the better. We offer healthcare to the community. The workload is higher, definitely, and you can't just have one pharmacist.”
Milestone
The team working alongside Bina and Dushyant have made Blakeberry Pharmacy the success it is. Several of the staff, including a full-time locum pharmacist, have worked at the branch for over 10 years and two of them, including Shailesh, have reached their 25-year milestone.
“Remuneration,” King observed upon his visit to the pharmacy earlier this year, “is way down their list of priorities,” and “the standard of care is most definitely at the top.” He also described the couple as “an outstanding example of experienced pharmacists who have adapted to the many changes within pharmacy in the past five years with considerable enthusiasm.”
That adaptability has allowed Bina and Dushyant to move with the times and provide their community with high quality healthcare. Bina, though, admits that the profession's future remains clouded by some uncertainty as the Health and Social Care Bill inches its way through the House of Lords.
“I hope pharmacy is valued by the government,” she says, struggling to conceal a hint of concern in her voice. “We as pharmacists are knowledgeable and play an important role in looking after the general community. The government doesn't realise that besides doctors and nurses, pharmacists are a very important part of improving and maintaining people's health.
“It is a worrying thing. Pharmacists don't get enough of a mention. We're the first point of contact for our community because patients can't always get an appointment with the doctor. I hope the government realises that pharmacy has a role to play in the new structures.”
She believes that while some community pharmacists are resistant to change and struggle to claw their way out of their comfort zone, they do need leadership and guidance at a local level. “We're lucky we've got Hemant Patel in our area,” she remarks. “He plays an active role in putting pharmacy into the new structure. Not all areas are so lucky to have someone like him. He pushes some of the pharmacy services forward.”
That communication with the north east London LPC secretary is utterly inspiring to pharmacists such as Bina and Dushyant, and especially invaluable given the couple have no contact with their local PCT. “There's no point of contact with the PCT, only the local council in Newham,” she observes.
“We put our views forward. The local council recognises pharmacy and they know all about the services we do.” She is asked to ponder where pharmacy fits into an NHS reconfigured and designed for a modern society and provides the startling admission that “with this new structure, pharmacists don't know where they are.”
“I'll be honest, there's a lot of confusion,” she continues. “We still don't know what kind of role we'll play. Nothing has been identified.” There is a worry that once doctors are handed the reins to new service commissioning arrangements, they may opt to dish out services amongst themselves or give them to the highest bidder. Whatever the scenario, the concern is that the process may not be fair.
“It's up to the doctors to decide, that's the sad thing. It's worrying because the doctors might not distribute the services to all health professionals. I doubt if they will,” she says.
The prospect of private companies tendering for services also sits uneasily with Bina. “I don't know why private companies need to bid when there are health professionals out there,” she asserts. “It shouldn't be about money. And private companies would do things over the internet and be much harder to reach or talk to. We as pharmacists are much more accessible.”
Despite the couple's passion for pharmacy and their dedication to the cause, a determination to maintain their standards as holistic health clinicians working in an NHS fit for the 21st century is fierce. “Me and my husband put a lot of hard work in,” she says, “and we want to continue all our hard work because it's the patients who matter more than anything else.”
“Sometimes people are happy in what they do and can get complacent. They think 'I'm earning enough and I don't need to do any more.' You need to love it to go that extra mile,” Bina Patel
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