Praisefornhs pharmacists

Pharmacy staff have been praised for their performance during the pandemic.

NHS Forth Valley’s associate director of pharmacy for primary care Laura Byrne said their hard work and resilience has been a source of pride across Forth Valley.

Both community and hospital-based services established new ways of working to make sure that patients could get timely access to medicines they required.

One example was the development of a daytime and out-of-hours urgent medicines supply process for care home residents.

Community pharmacies have opened every contracted day to provide access to critical medications and pharmaceutical care.

In the hospital setting pharmacy has become involved in a national coordination system to make sure every health board in Scotland has an equal supply of medicines.

NHS FV’S mental health pharmacy team also provided guidance in relation to highrisk medicines such as clozapine.

Pharmacists working in GP practices have been able to keep a close check on local supply levels and the local pharmacy team within substance services worked with key workers to make sure patients can still access medicines in a way which safeguards them and the public.

Ms Byrne said: “The professionalism, determination and resilience from all our pharmacy staff and services continues to be critical for the delivery of key health services to local people and for maintaining our medicines supply chain during the pandemic.”