Northern Ireland’s chief pharmaceutical officer, Cathy Harrison, visited a community pharmacy in Belfast on Friday to highlight the sector’s contributions.

In a video highlighting pharmacy services taken during the visit to MediCare’s Tramway Pharmacy, she described community pharmacies as ‘one of the front doors to the health service’ through over 500 sites across Northern Ireland.

‘In our community pharmacies you can always rely on friendly staff, medicines expertise, and walk-in access to face-to-face advice,’ she said.

The visit took place to commemorate Ask Your Pharmacist Week, which was organised by the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) to raise awareness of the services that pharmacies provide.

Ms Harrison also spoke about Northern Ireland’s Pharmacy First service, which funds virtual or in-person consultations where pharmacists can give patients advice on common illnesses or refer patients to other appropriate healthcare providers.

She added that community pharmacy services help promote public health, raise awareness of cancer, help people to quit smoking, manage patients with urinary tract infections, and have given over 400,000 covid vaccinations since March this year.

MediCare’s managing director, Michael Guerin, said that it was a pleasure to welcome the Ms Harrison to the branch.

‘She is very engaged with the community pharmacy sector and it’s good that the general public gets to hear Cathy’s very clear endorsement of the vital work that pharmacies across Northern Ireland do,’ he said.

The visit took place as part of the NPA’s UK-wide public awareness campaign, Ask Your Pharmacist week.

In England, the campaign focused on raising awareness of the NHS services provided by pharmacies, including the New Medicine Service, after an NPA survey found that 44% of people asked did not know that people newly prescribed a medicine for a long-term condition could access an NHS consultation in a pharmacy.