Twenty-four awards were presented to pharmacy teams and individuals from community pharmacies across the county in recognition of their achievements over the last year. The awards were presented by Abdul Razaq, Suffolk County Council’s Director of Public Health and Protection, who said:
“It gives me great pleasure to congratulate all Suffolk pharmacies that have achieved Healthy Living status. This demonstrates the hard work and dedication of the county’s pharmacy teams, who have worked hard for this accreditation.
“This award means these pharmacies will provide even greater focus on offering advice and support for people to live healthily. This supports our public health team’s ambition to keep people well for longer. Pharmacies are at the heart of the community, and people will go there trusting in the fact that health professionals are on hand to help them.”
Suffolk’s public health team funds the training and development for pharmacy teams to reach level 1 to become a Healthy Living Pharmacy, which means they can offer an enhanced service to support people to be healthier.
Myra Battle, the organiser of this event, who works as a Service Support Officer for Suffolk Local Pharmaceutical Committee (LPC) said:
“This event is all about valuing the amazing people that work within our community pharmacy teams who already provide such excellent service to their customers. I feel privileged to work with them to develop the services they deliver. However, tonight we are also launching a new initiative with Suffolk Family Carers to improve the support that pharmacies provide to the large number of family carers in our communities. Pharmacies will be able to access tools and information which will help them to understand the issues that lots of carers face in their day to day lives and to offer support to keep both them and the people they care for, healthy and happy. Pharmacies will sign a pledge and will be accredited as “Carer Friendly Pharmacies” so it is clear that help for these important members of our communities is readily available “
The LPC hopes that this will become an annual event and that community pharmacies in Suffolk will be increasingly recognised for the important role they play in keeping Suffolk residents healthy.
