Awards - Scottish Pharmacist

Edinburgh International Conference Centre was the fantastic venue for the highlight of the pharmacy year: the Scottish Pharmacist Awards, which were held on Saturday 24 March.

Every year the awards provide the opportunity for the pharmacy profession to recognise and celebrate the achievements of both individuals and pharmacy teams and every award ceremony showcases a fantastic range of projects and initiatives.

The evening’s MC, Dougie Vipond, set the tone for the evening by introducing a video, which was to be the perfect backdrop for the evening’s events. The video featured a range of community pharmacists, who talked about the vital role that community pharmacy could play – particularly through initiatives such as Pharmacy First – and also featured patients, who spoke about how much they valued the service that their local pharmacy played in the community.

The video also featured Community Pharmacy Scotland Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Harry McQuillan, who stressed the fact that community pharmacy could be vital in relieving the pressure on the NHS.

Following the video, Dougie Vipond welcomed to the stage Rupert Newman, Sales Director at Celesio UK, which forms part of the main event sponsor, AAH Pharmaceuticals. Rupert began by thanking Scottish Pharmacist for their efforts in rescheduling the event, which was originally scheduled for 3 March, but which had to be rescheduled due to the ‘Beast from the East’, which had led to travel difficulties and transport problems.

In his speech, Rupert focused on the changes that were both taking place within community pharmacy in Scotland and on those additional changes which were still needed, highlighting the importance of Scotland’s service-led contract and the unique contribution that pharmacy can make to healthcare given its unique accessibility on the high street.

‘We know,’ Rupert said, ‘that there are great opportunities for Scottish pharmacies. There is a clear and positive strategic direction for the profession, demonstrated by recognition from Government and representative bodies that pharmacy has a significant role to play in the health of the Scottish nation, working in partnership with other parts of the NHS to achieve pharmaceutical excellence.

Our main sponsor, AAH Pharmaceuticals, has consistently helped us to recognise the strengths of Scotland’s community pharmacy, and we thank them for that.

We’d also like to thank this year’s category sponsors: Accord Healthcare, WaterWipes, Positive Solutions, Clinigen, Numark, PSUK (A Phoenix company), National Pharmacy Association, Willach UK, Cegedim Rx, Teva UK, EMIS Health and Eclipse Generics. Your support is both welcome and greatly appreciated.