This week marks the launch of a new Inpatient Pharmacy at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, officially opened by NHS England Chief Pharmaceutical Officer David Webb.
Derriford Hospital’s Inpatient Pharmacy dispenses an average of 3000 medicines every day. Now, a complete refurbishment and installation of a state-of-the-art pharmacy robot, means improved efficiency in dispensing those important medications.
The pharmacy robot allows faster and safer dispensing of medicines along with keeping better track of stock. It also reduces paper processes, which is better for the environment. This paves the way for medicines automation across the entire Trust.
Dan Stevens, University Hospitals Plymouth Associate Director of Operations for Pharmacy, said: “Thank you to everyone for your patience whilst we complete this huge project. We are confident you will see improvements in all aspects of our service as a result and cant wait to see the transformation across the hospital as we further develop the service and digital systems within Inpatient Pharmacy.”
Kandarp Thakkar, UHP’s Chief Pharmacist and Clinical Director of Medicines Optimisation, said: “We’re delighted to open this new and improved facility and thank our brilliant teams of over 150 colleagues for all their hard work and drive to get the new pharmacy open and making a difference for patients.”
Pharmacy colleagues celebrated moving into the revamped inpatient pharmacy after 5 months of relocation to a temporary unit where teams manually picked medicines while the renovations were completed and a new robot was installed.