Good news on this one and well done Kevin, and the Island community pharmacists. This in from the Isle of Wight NHS, in their own words – Ed.
Winners of the inaugural Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) Awards have been announced with Kevin Noble, Community Pharmacy Lead for NHS IoW Primary Care Trust being awarded the Royal Pharmaceutical Society ‘Public Health Pharmacist of the Year’.
The awards celebrate and recognise the achievements of groups and individuals within the pharmacy profession. There are 7 award categories, designed to recognise pharmacists from all sectors of the profession and throughout all stages of their pharmacy careers.
The RPS say that Kevin was “recognised for his hard work integrating community pharmacy as a provider of immunisation services across the Isle of Wight, Kevin Noble is the recipient of the RPS Public Health Pharmacist of the Year Award. Mr Noble co-ordinated an awareness campaign, oversaw staff training to provide services in 17 pharmacy-based vaccination centres across the Isle of Wight.”
Examples of best practice
Only recently, The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has highlighted many Island pharmacy services as examples of best practice nationally. Community Pharmacies on the Isle of Wight offer more services to the public than anywhere else in England, these include the provision of NHS flu jabs to patients identified as high risk, Hepatitis B vaccination, Hepatitis B, C and HIV tests, Chlamydia screening and treatment, NHS Stop Smoke support, and access to emergency contraception.
Additionally, work carried out through Island based community pharmacies received national recognition at three different awards ceremonies including the Chief Medical Officers silver medal award for work carried out by pharmacists to improve access to vaccinations in certain patient groups.
“Very proud”
Commenting on the award, Kevin said “I am delighted to have received this recognition from my own professional body, it always nice to get the approval of your peers. I am very proud of what is an excellent network of community pharmacists on the Isle of Wight and am very privileged to work with such an enthusiastic group of Healthcare Professionals who deliver such high standards of service”
