Amardeep Singh began his career in community pharmacy, but now works as a senior GP Pharmacist in Wolverhampton. He is also a co-founder of One PCN Training, which provides clinical training to pharmacists and other primary care staff.

Here, he tells The Pharmacist how he carved out a role as a pharmacist in general practice more than a decade ago, and is now training others to follow in his footsteps.

‘Training, education and practice are intertwined. What I learn in practice, I bring to teaching, and what I learn in teaching, I apply in practice,’ Amardeep tells The Pharmacist.

The practice he works in hosts clinics led by pharmacists, nurses and GPs – a multidisciplinary approach where each profession can contribute to patient health.

But carving out a role as a pharmacist in this part of primary care hasn’t always been so seamless.

Having completed his pre-registration year in hospital and community pharmacy, Amardeep hoped that working in the community would give him the patient interface he wanted.

‘I've always been more interested in directly impacting patient treatment and managements, beyond just dispensing,’ he tells The Pharmacist.

But the community pharmacist role of more than a decade ago didn’t offer much scope for patient interface, he says. So, after a couple of years, Amardeep began to approach local GP practices to see whether he could work with them.

At that time, GP teams mainly consisted of healthcare assistants, nurses, and GPs, but Amardeep says he presented 'extensively' on the value pharmacists could add to medical practices.

One practice allowed him to conduct medicine reviews, which expanded into managing quality of care, patient education, and long-term condition management.

In 2014, Amardeep qualified as an independent prescriber and soon joined Intrahealth, a pharmacist-led company. At Intrahealth, he delivered clinics for patients on warfarin and those transitioning to newer oral anticoagulants like apixaban.

With a passion for education, Amardeep began training other pharmacists to navigate general practice pathways, ultimately managing a team of seven across various practices.

Together with a colleague, he founded the Advanced Primary Care Group (APCG) to help pharmacists find suitable roles in general practice and provide training, beginning with a minor illness course.

And in 2023, Amardeep co-founded One PCN Training, beginning by developing an interactive, two-day face to face minor illness course with the support of a GP, Dr Yassir Javaid, which was then accredited by the Royal College of GPs (RCGP).

Since April 2023, One PCN Training has developed other courses relevant to primary care colleagues, including doctors, nurses, paramedics and physicians associates working within general practice, being added to the provider.

The training portfolio has expanded to include courses on blood interpretation, women’s health and paediatric health, which are available as on demand webinars with workbooks and competencies that can be signed off by a supervisor back in practice. It also offers regular ECG interpretation 'bite-sized' webinars.

And this year, One PCN Training introduced a clinical examination skills masterclass – where participants can get hands on experience, learn from experienced GPs, and demonstrate their skills to a clinical assessor.

'Our training isn't just about explaining complex things in complex ways—it's about making them simple and applicable. If you understand the why, then the how becomes clear,' says Amardeep.

One PCN Training has also recently run a webinar for community pharmacists taking on more clinical work through Pharmacy First, which is now available on demand, alongside a Whatsapp group for ongoing support.

As the healthcare landscape and the role of the pharmacist evolves, continuous education is 'key to professional development and enhanced patient care', says Amardeep.