The people of County Down are in great hands as three local pharmacists take home trophies from Northern Ireland’s leading awards ceremony, the highly-esteemed annual Pharmacy in Focus awards, which were hosted this year by the province’s own Eamonn Holmes.
The village of Strangford is celebrating this week after the local pharmacy scooped the Pharmacy of the Year Award, supported by pharmaceutical wholesaler Sangers AAH.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Strangford pharmacist Shane O’Hare was overwhelmed by the award! He said: “This is such a wonderful accolade. We opened up twelve years ago and all I wanted to do was provide the local community with a great service. I seriously can’t believe what we’ve achieved over these twelve years!”
Peter Surgenor, Managing Director NI for Sangers AAH, spoke about the company connection with the Pharmacy in Focus awards and said: “This is a key event for the industry and we are proud to have been a supporter for the last 11 years of the awards, we are delighted that Strangford Pharmacy are the Pharmacy of the Year!”
Medicare Pharmacy Group will also be delighted as Newcastle pharmacist Anna McLaughlin went home with the coveted Pharmacist of the Year award, supported by Teva UK.
Anna was recognised for her successful track record in delivering patient-focused services, which are designed to improve the health and wellbeing of the local community.
Local Ardglass pharmacist Paula McDaid, member of the Primary Care and Community Together (PACT) and the team, picked up the illustrious Enterprise within Pharmacy Award.
PACT is a new ‘model of care’ for the community pharmacy network, and includes a PACT pharmacist to represent all of the community pharmacies within a locality. This is a new concept of community pharmacies working together to provide a population model of care.
