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Wednesday 25 September 2024

Always improving in our pharmacy

University Hospital Southampton is home to one of the largest pharmacy departments in the country.

The teams make sure the medicines our patients take are safe, appropriate and cost-effective.

In UHS, 2.5 million prescriptions are written and 8.5 million doses administered each year. All of the medicines involved are handled by the pharmacy department.

They support between 200 and 250 clinical trials at any given time - but have historically lacked the capacity to develop their own research.

Developing pharmacy research

Andy Fox is a Consultant Pharmacist and Deputy Chief Pharmacist. He is advancing pharmacy research at the trust through the Research Leaders Programme (RLP).

Andy has a clinical background as a paediatric pharmacist but has long had an interest in research.

In 2018, he completed his PhD at the University of Portsmouth, where he investigated electronic prescribing and paediatric medicines safety.

He is part of the RLP’s second cohort. He has two main aims:

  1. To set aside some time to develop his own research career.
  2. To develop the research capacity, quality and capability of the pharmacy department more broadly.

“I see the RLP as a chance to drive our department’s research forward and make a real impact”, he says.

He is working closely alongside his pharmacy colleague Cathy McKenzie, who is also part of this cohort, to do this.

Cathy McKenzie

Innovative initiatives

One of Andy’s proudest achievements is that they’ve been able to establish an internship programme.

“This initiative creates a structured pathway into pharmacy research,” he explains. “It fills a critical gap in the profession where clear entry points into research are often lacking.”

They’ve also set up researcher coffee mornings.

“It’s fantastic to have a space for staff to explore ideas and get excited about research”, says Andy.

Through the RLP, Andy has grown his network across the country. He’s also fostered collaborations with other RLP award holders, including Mark Banting and Judith Cave.

He's working with the University of Birmingham to explore electronic prescribing in England.

His other projects include development of an intervention to co-administer medicines on a children’s ward. He’s also investigating the confidence and competency of pharmacy staff to undertake final accuracy checks through the FACET study.

Growing achievements

Research successes are gathering momentum in the department.

These include an NIHR doctoral research award and an NIHR Senior Clinical Practitioner Award in the scheme’s first ever round.

Two predoctoral fellows are also being supported by the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre.

In 2023, there were at least 25 publications from the department, including in some high impact journals.

The critical care pharmacy team is presenting six abstracts of their work at the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine annual congress in Barcelona this autumn.

“I am really proud of our pharmacy’s achievements,” Cathy says. “None of this would have happened without the support of the Research Leaders Programme.”

James Allen and Andy Fox talking next to Andy's research poster

‘An enormous opportunity’

James Allen, Chief Pharmacist at UHS, is an advocate for research within the department. However, workforce constraints have often made it challenging to find the time and resources.

He says the protected time for research that the RLP provides has been a game-changer.

“The programme provides me with the legitimacy to allow my staff to do research”, he explains. “It lets us support them without diverting them to other tasks.”

James sees the RLP as an “enormous opportunity”. He continues: “Being able to lead our own research in the department is key to resolving some of the challenges we face.”

The RLP is also paving the way for long-term change in the department.

“We’re thinking about how to grow our research capacity further in the next few years,” James explains. “People like Andy and Cathy have built significant experience through the RLP. They are now well-equipped to mentor the next generation of pharmacy researchers.”

Next steps include developing a PhD programme and staying at the forefront of advances in medicines safety and patient care.

Find out more about the UHS Research Leaders Programme here