We caught up with the Pharmacist/Pharmacy Team of the Year Award shortlist ahead of this year’s General Practice Awards ceremony to be held on 5 December at the Novotel London West. South Sefton’s pharmacists share how they are improving medicines safety here
Across South Sefton primary care network (PCN), an integrated team of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians is improving medicines safety, streamlining care, and supporting patients at some of the most important points in their health journey.
‘Our integrated ICB/PCN team is proud to have built a collaborative, patient-centred service that delivers safe, effective and compassionate care across our community,’ explains Jenny Johnston, head of medicines management at Sefton Place.
Related Article: Payment percentage for statutory branded medicines scheme drops to 16.5%
The South Sefton PCN medicines management team operates an innovative model that brings together clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working across 25 GP practices.
Through careful coordination of medicines management, discharge reviews and specialist clinics, the team has strengthened the safety and consistency of patient care across the network.
At the heart of the model is a medicines management hub, providing a single point of contact for out-of-stock medicines, clinical queries and safety alerts.
Between April 2024 and March 2025, the hub completed more than 11,700 post-hospital discharge reconciliations, over 8,400 medication reviews and more than 1,000 home visits for patients recently discharged from hospital.
Independent evaluation has shown a 9% reduction in GP appointments and a 32% fall in A&E attendances following the hub’s introduction.
Related Article: Research review: a look at the latest clinical papers
The team also supports care home residents through structured medication reviews and personalised care plans, ensuring medicines remain appropriate as health needs change.
Pharmacist-led menopause clinics provide holistic advice and HRT initiation, while involvement in the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) health check programme helps patients and families engage with wider health and wellbeing services.
Looking forward to the ceremony in December, Ms Johnston said: ‘Winning this award would mean so much to us – a true recognition of our team’s dedication, innovation and the positive impact we try to make every day on patient wellbeing.’
Related Article: Advice for newly qualified prescribing pharmacists published by GPhC
This is the third of six shortlisted entries for Pharmacist/Pharmacy Team of the Year at the General Practice Awards. The winners will be revealed at the awards ceremony on Friday 5 December at the Novotel London West. If you’d like to be there on the night you can find out more here and book tickets here.
Have your say
Please add your comment in the box below. You can include links, but HTML is not permitted. Please note that comments are not moderated before publication and the views expressed are those of the user and do not reflect the views of The Pharmacist. Remember that submission of comments is governed by our Terms and Conditions. You can also read our full guidelines on article comments here – but please be aware that you are legally liable for any libellous or offensive comments that you make. If you have a complaint about a comment or are concerned that a comment breaches our terms and conditions, please use the ‘Report this comment’ function to alert our web team.