Clinical pharmacists are experts in medicines and how they are used in the treatment for specific disease areas. Their role is invaluable in helping our doctors and nurses to be able to spend more time with patients while they deal with the majority of medicine-related queries.
Our clinical pharmacists deal with repeat prescriptions, reviews, common minor ailments, urgent medication requests and deal with medication for patients recently discharged from hospital.
Our GPs may ask the clinical pharmacist to get in touch with you if you take lots of medications from time to time. This is to review your symptoms and check they’re still the best medications to be on. Where better, newer alternatives are available, they’ll discuss this with you and your GP.
Our Clinical Pharmacists
Kirsty Smith
Kirsty holds both a Masters of Pharmacy Degree from University of Nottingham Which she completed in 2011 and a Postgraduate Clinical Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy Practice from University of Keele which she completed in 2015.
After completing her Pharmacy degree in 2011, she completed her Pre-registration training year whilst working as a Hospital Pharmacist upon of which she remained in hospital pharmacy for the next 8 years before embarking on her new role as a PCN clinical pharmacist in July 2020.
Kirsty feels that the main difference from her previous work is that in this PCN role she is able to see the patient more holistically rather than focusing on the acute issue that brought them to hospital/focusing on their discharge. She finds that it is also really nice to be able to follow patients up and be part of their ongoing journey which is something that she was unable to do in hospital as once the patient was discharged they were back in the hands of their GP practice team.
Kirsty is looking forward to starting her Independent Prescribing qualification later this year which will help her to develop her role within the PCN even further.
Mobeen Bashir
Mobeen began working as a Community Pharmacist for a well know chain for several years before embarking on further education after having her children. She returned to education as a mature student and attended evening college and then full-time a-levels and gained the qualifications required for university.
Qualifying with a first-class degree in Master of Pharmacy in 2018 she started her post graduate clinical certificate in 2019 during which she secured her position with the PCN and has been working in the North Warwickshire region since Aug 20.
Mobeen has found this position to differ from community pharmacy in respect to dealing with more clinical queries and spending time consulting with patients on a more in-depth and holistic level. She is able to do this whilst conducting medication reviews and structured medicine reviews with patients which involve looking further into their bloods, blood pressure and any other reviews due. Within community pharmacy although clinical checks are done on patients’ medication, the availability of details such as liver/ renal function are not available making it difficult to advise and make a fully informed decision.
Mobeen has a keen interest in Gastroenterology, in particular ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease and also an interest in mental health. When patients are unfortunate to have suffered from them both it can be quite difficult as the conditions can offset each other.
Mobeen is currently training on the CPPE GP pathway which is an 18month course. After this it is her aim to start an independent prescribing course in September 2022. She looks forward to continuing to develop in her role with the clinical support from the GP’s and being able to bring the knowledge gained from these qualifications to her job in the community.
Georgia Lewis
Georgia holds a Master’s in pharmacy which she obtained from Cardiff university. After graduating in 2020 she then earned her qualifications as a pharmacist in 2021 and completed her pre-registration year in a community pharmacy.
Following that Georgia began working for Boots in the October of 2021 where she had many different roles within the company. When She first started it was working at the Outpatient store at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. This was a very fast past clinical environment and developed her knowledge and understanding of processes and procedures that take place within the hospital. After around a year and a half she moved into community pharmacy within Boots. During this time Georgia was determined to become trained in provided services for patients. She then completed training to be able to do Travel vaccinations, she also took part in the flu vaccination centres this year.
This new role with the PCN will be very different from Georgia’s past work in community pharmacy as it will be much more patient facing, and much more clinical. Georgia is very keen to explore this new role and the opportunities to help our local community. Before starting with the PCN she was working in Vaccination centres inside the stores where she worked, to deliver the Winter Flu vaccination. She really enjoyed providing this service, as she has enjoyed a more patient facing role and being able to directly help people.
Georgia’s is enthusiastic and willing to learn and her professional goals for the future are initially to complete her CPPE GP pathway and then hopefully an independent prescribing course. This she believes will help develop her role in the PCN further in the future better enabling her to help and provide support and care to patients.