Pharmacy Department
Lead Officers: Paul McCabe Chief Pharmacist
Lindsay Robins Deputy Chief Pharmacist
Location: General Hospital, Gloucester Street, St Helier, Jersey
What we do
The hospital pharmacy department provides a range of services which includes the supply of medicines to wards, departments and inpatients at the General Hospital, Overdale Hospital, St. Saviours Hospital, Sandybrook and The Limes. The pharmacy service also provides information and advice on drug therapy, the specialised preparation of a range of products which are not commercially available such as chemotherapy and intravenous feeds, and the supply of medicines to hospital outpatients.
There are three main functional departments within the pharmacy service. These are:
- Dispensary and Distribution Services
- Manufacturing and Aseptic Services
- Clinical Pharmacy Services
Dispensary and distribution services and the manufacturing and aseptic services section are based within the pharmacy department. They support the work of the clinical pharmacy team who are predominantly based at ward level working alongside nursing and medical staff.
1. Dispensary and Distribution Services
Section Head: Nicola Grogan - Chief Technician
Dispensary opening times are:
Monday to Friday 09.00 to 17.00
Saturday 09.00 to 12.30
Sunday Closed
Bank holidays 10.00 to 11.30
This section of the pharmacy is the one that most visitors and outpatients will be familiar with. The dispensary dispenses medicines for patients to use on wards, also medicines for patients to take home when they are discharged from hospital and medicines for outpatients. Staff are also responsible for the ordering, supply and distribution of routine, commonly used medicines to all wards and departments within Health and Social Services. The dispensing and distribution service is supported by the purchasing/procurement and stores department as well as the computer services technician.
The dispensary is an extremely busy department and in 2005 the dispensary supplied more than 290,000 items to patients, wards and departments. The section is managed by a Chief Technician who is responsible for ensuring that all agreed performance indicators relating to the supply and distribution of medicines are met.
2. Manufacturing and Aseptic Services
Section Head: Hilary Harper Prouse - Manufacturing and Aseptic Services Manager
Medicines which are not commercially available or which need to be made up in a sterile environment are produced by the manufacturing and aseptic services section. The main work of the section is the production of chemotherapy for cancer patients. This requires highly specialised facilities with all the chemotherapy being made up in a sterile room. The pharmacist in charge of the section also has responsibility for confirming that the chemotherapy is appropriate for the intended patient and also that the procedures used to make these products conform to certain quality standards. This section also prepares sterile intravenous feeds (Total Parenteral Nutrition) for patients who cannot absorb food from their gastrointestinal tract
3. Clinical Pharmacy Services
Section Head: Debbie Winter - Clinical Pharmacy Manager
Clinical pharmacists visit the wards at least once a day in order to check the safety, efficacy and cost effectiveness of prescriptions. Where they have concerns that the choice of medicine prescribed might not be appropriate in terms of its safety profile, effectiveness or cost they will raise their concerns with medical staff and make suggestions as to a more appropriate option. This advice will be offered to all levels of medical staff. Clinical pharmacists therefore provide a valuable risk management function within the organisation and also ensure that the hospital gets the best value for money from the medicines it uses which have been agreed by the Drugs and Therapeutics Committee.
Clinical pharmacists also answer enquires from medical and nursing staff and also from patients themselves on any aspect relating to the use of medicines. This function is supported by the medicines information department within pharmacy which has access to a wide range of information sources relating to medicines.
Clinical pharmacists and the medicines information pharmacist are managed by the Clinical Pharmacy Manager who is an experienced pharmacist with an extremely wide ranging and detailed knowledge of medicines and how they are used.
