World Pharmacists Day
Today, on World Pharmacists Day, we are recognising our Pharmacy team and encouraging people to consider a career in Pharmacy.
EPUT’s team of pharmacists play a vital role in the care of patients across inpatient and community services, supporting them through every step of their care, treatment and recovery.
More than 50 pharmacists work across our inpatient and community teams, helping to administer more than two million doses of medication every year and working with patients and clinical colleagues to ensure patients get the best results from the medicines they take.
World Pharmacists Day recognises and celebrates the vital role pharmacists play across the world – to mark the event, three of EPUT’s pharmacists explain why they chose a career in pharmacy.
Oyinda Adeniyi, Deputy Chief Pharmacist in Inpatient, Urgent Care and Specialist Services (pictured below), joined the Trust in August 2011 and plays a key role in ensuring medicines are used safely.
She said: “I’ve always wanted to work in healthcare for as long as I can remember. As a child, I remember talking about becoming a doctor, but as I grew older I knew I didn’t really want to go down that route or nursing. At a career day in secondary school, we had a pharmacist working in research and development give a talk and this started my interest in pharmacy.
“Seeing the difference appropriate use of medicines can make in people’s lives is one of the most rewarding parts of my role. Watching a patient move from being very ill on admission to recovering to the point of discharge and the positive impact that has on families feels satisfying and that we make a difference.”
Baraqah Balogun is a Pre-Registration Trainee Pharmacist who started working at EPUT in July this year.
“Pharmacy is something I've always been interested in,” he said. “I've always like science and took chemistry and biology at A-level.
“Working with the Trust has been really good so far - everyone is very supportive and I'm learning something new every day. I'm not 100 per cent sure what my long term goals and aspirations are. Right now, I just want to gain experience, but there are so many different routes you can go down within pharmacy so I would like to explore that too.”
Jabir Afzal is a Specialist Immunisation Pharmacist and lead pharmacist for EPUT’s School Age Immunisation service.
He said: “To be part of a service which can help prevent many very dangerous diseases, especially in children, is highly rewarding.”
EPUT’s Pharmacy team is currently recruiting – details of all vacancies can be found on our Vacancies page.