‘Prof’ scores unique treble
The last year has been a bit of a home run for semi-retired Matamata pharmacist Grant Short.
In June, he was named a life member of the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand, as well as Contributor of the Year at the Pharmacy Awards.
Then, in November, he was made a fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand.
To achieve one of these feats is outstanding.
To crack all three in one year is remarkable.
A well- versed traveller, Mr Short was in North Queensland when he heard he had been awarded the fellowship.
‘‘I was quite surprised really,’’ he told the Chronicle last week.
‘‘ It was never something I thought about.’’
Guidelines say a fellow must have made a ‘‘significant and outstanding contribution to the advancement of the practice of pharmacy in New Zealand’’.
Pharmacy Guild president Karen Crisp said Mr Short, known to his peers as ‘‘Prof’’, was an extremely deserving candidate.
‘‘He’s seen a lot of change over the years and his sharpness, dedication and forward thinking has not wavered throughout,’’ she said.
On top of living and working as a community pharmacist in Matamata for three decades, Mr Short has sat on almost every pharmacy governance group.
Over the years, he has held positions at both the Pharmaceutical Society and the Pharmacy Guild, and was a founding member of the Midlands Community Pharmacy Group.
He has a postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy and is also a fellow of the New Zealand College of Pharmacy.
He has sat on the Community Pharmacy Services Operations Group, the Audit Taskforce, and remains on the Funding Fee Setting and Monitoring Group.
In 2009, he was asked to be part of the Community Pharmacy Services Agreement team and was often referred to as ‘‘the human computer’’ because of his data analysis skills.
In the end though, it always came back to the people in a community and making healthcare more accessible to them.
‘‘Pharmacists are there on the coal face – we deal with people, not just the numbers,’’ he said.
Intent on ‘‘influencing his own future’’, Mr Short has always strived to leave pharmacy in a better position than before he entered the profession.
‘‘ I always try to contribute something to society in whatever I am doing, as many people do in other walks of life,’’ he said.
‘‘And, I like a challenge,’’ Mr Short added.
‘‘It’s a nice feeling to be formally recognised by your peers but you don’t do it for that, it’s a byproduct really.’’