The Gastroenterology pharmacy team was recently awarded ‘Hospital Pharmacy Team of the Year 2022’ at the Scottish Healthcare Awards in November.
The team, established in June 2021, were recognised for their new and innovative work by a panel of judges from across the pharmacy profession in Scotland.
The team consists of a highly specialist clinical pharmacist/team lead, two specialist clinical pharmacists and a secretary, who’s role is to deliver person-centred, safe and effective pharmaceutical care to patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in outpatient and inpatient settings across NHS Lanarkshire.
The team was set up in the wake of the increasing backlog of outpatient care caused by Covid-19, in order to increase the capacity of IBD multidisciplinary team across the three acute hospitals.
Michael Smith, highly specialist clinical pharmacist/team lead, based at University Hospital Hairmyres said: “I am incredibly proud of what the team has achieved over the first 18 months of our new service.
“We have developed the service from the ground up, ensuring our patients with IBD have been at the centre of the care we deliver.
“Conor and Rebecca, our specialist pharmacists at University Hospital Wishaw and Monklands have risen to the challenges and worked very hard to help me deliver on our key objectives, whilst upskilling themselves as independent prescribers.
“I am also especially proud of our team secretary, Anne, who has been an amazing support to not only the team, but our patients. The team very much deserve this award.”
The team’s primary focus has been on the delivery of person-centred care through the switching of patients from intravenous to subcutaneous vedolizumab – a high-cost biologic medicine used in the treatment of IBD, which has generated hundreds of thousands of pounds in savings for the health board.
At the same time, the team has worked innovatively to improve the delivery of care to patients by leading a transformational programme of work, including the role out of pharmacist led prescribing and monitoring of high risk IBD medicines and gastroenterology pharmacist led clinics across the three acute hospitals.
This work has also freed up capacity for consultant and nurse specialists to allow them to deliver the care needed for patients with gastrointestinal conditions across Lanarkshire.
