On 17 February, Foysol Choudhury MSP for Lothian, visited the pharmacy team at Barnton Pharmacy in Edinburgh to witness the fantastic work they are doing to provide care to their local community. The visit was organised by Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland.

Foysol met Pharmacy Manager, Leanne Carey, who has owned and run Barnton Pharmacy for fifteen years. Leanne spoke about the fantastic one-to-one care which she provides to her patients. As an independent prescriber, Leanne offers her patients direct access to medicines for common conditions as appropriate, saving them time whilst also reducing pressure on local GP practices.

Foysol also met with Glenn Davie, who has led on Barnton’s implementation of the Daffodil Standards for Community Pharmacy. The standards were developed by RPS in conjunction with Marie Curie, to support Community Pharmacies to offer the very best palliative, end of life and bereavement care to patients, families and carers.

Fiona McIntyre, Policy and Practice Lead at RPS explained the role of RPS in providing professional support to pharmacists working in all sectors and outlined some of RPS’s policy priorities, including, enabling pharmacy access to patient records, environmental sustainability and ensuring funding and training routes are in place to secure a continual pipeline of pharmacists entering the profession in Scotland and ultimately sustaining pharmacy for the future.

Speaking about the visit, Foysol Choudhury MSP said:

“This was a fantastic opportunity to witness first-hand the great work which the Barnton Pharmacy team is engaged in daily. 

I was really impressed to hear about the range of high-quality services which the team offers patients on a walk-in basis, from independent prescribing to palliative and end of life specialist support.

In order that the pharmacy team can continue to deliver these services on behalf of the community, it is vital that the right infrastructure and support is in place to enable the team to provide the very best care. This includes enabling community pharmacists to have access to patient records; and ensuring funding is in place for pharmacy team workforce development, from funding for teaching and training prescribers to ensuring a healthy pipeline of pharmacy graduates for the future.

I look forward to campaigning on these issues with my colleagues in the Scottish Parliament, to enable pharmacy to continue to provide a fantastic service for patients across Barnton, Lothians and across the whole of Scotland.”