75 years – that’s a long time isn’t it!

If I think about my Pharmacy, S G Barai Pharmacy, it has been on the corner of Erskine Road in Sutton for more than 75 years.

When the NHS was created it was owned by a Mr Craig who sold it to a Mr E Thompson in May 1949 and this is the first entry he made in the prescription register when he took over the business. Then in February 1979, my parents bought the Pharmacy and we continued using that same register. In fact I still use it to date as my private prescription register and, every time I get it out, I feel the nostalgia and history that sits within the pages of the book.

So much has changed over the years, as I think back over the 44 years that my family have owned the Pharmacy. The building itself has been a constant for the local people who live around my pharmacy. So many of our patients have been using the Pharmacy for 75 years and longer in some cases. I love hearing the stories of their relationship with the Pharmacy and its staff.

I recently met a lady who remembers that the Pharmacy was one of the only places with a telephone and when her mum was giving birth to her brother, she had asked her husband to run down to the chemist to ask them to phone the Doctor.

Last month I met the first member of staff who we employed when we took over the Pharmacy. She had worked with Mr Thompson for many years before this too and she shared some memories with me about the old-fashioned wooden till, the way they wrapped everything people bought in paper and how Mr Thompson hosted a lending book library from the back room of the Pharmacy.

My personal relationship with the Pharmacy stems back to my childhood. I grew up living on top of the Pharmacy, always wanting to be in the Pharmacy talking to customers and arranging stock on the shelves. This July marks the 20 year anniversary of me taking over the running of the Pharmacy too and I feel like I have blinked and 20 years have passed by!

There are many values of the NHS that have been core values for the way I have run the Pharmacy too. I have always strived to be part of the NHS locally, from attending local meetings with GPs and practice colleagues from the onset to being the current co-chair of my local PCN’s Integrated Neighbourhood Team. I have known that as a Community Pharmacist I can’t work in isolation if I want to truly make a difference to the lives of my patients.

I have continued to provide a large range of NHS services to my patients over the years and when we took on the challenge of being a Covid Vaccination Site we stepped up to a whole new level of service provision. Recently we undertook our largest vaccination program for the Spring Booster campaign when we took on the vaccination of patients in Care Homes in Sutton and the housebound patients too.

Whilst at one of the care homes I vaccinated my old headmistress. She sadly had advanced dementia and couldn’t remember me, but meeting her after all these years triggered a memory for me. My headmistress had a peculiar passion for obituaries and in her assemblies, she would often read us obituaries from the Times newspaper. At the time, I used to find it quite morbid until one day she explained why she did it. She told us she wanted us to live a life where we leave a legacy, one that could fill a Times newspaper obituary with so much content that people would be glad they knew you and proud of all you had achieved in your life. Sub-consciously I think I have been doing that for all these years in my Pharmacy.

When my Pharmacist dad passed away 25 years ago, patients came into the Pharmacy in their hundreds with cards of condolences and messages to say how kind he was to everyone. When I took over the Pharmacy in 2003, I knew that I wanted to leave a similar legacy for my patients too.

Over the years, as I have ‘grown-up’ with my patients there is an irreplaceable bond I have created with each and every one of my patients and I think this is one of the best parts of being a Community Pharmacist. The clue is in the job title, we are Pharmacists for our community!

As everyone will be sharing their stories today as the NHS turns 75, I wanted to share mine. Somehow, I know the press will focus on the Doctors and the Nurses, the hospitals and the GP practices and as always the valuable role Pharmacists, as the 3rd largest health care profession after Doctors and Nurses, play in the NHS will be subdued.

Yet for those patients in the know, who rely on their local Pharmacy and its team, I know they will be grateful we exist and have done for 75 years as part of the NHS.

I will never tire of telling everyone I meet about the invaluable role of Community Pharmacists and their teams! I will continue to talk to the press, Lords, Ministers, MPs and even Royalty until I see that my colleagues and I get the recognition we deserve as an integral and valued part of the NHS.

Over the last few years I have been fortunate to advocate for Community Pharmacy at a national level as a board member of the National Pharmacy Association and committee member of Community Pharmacy England (CPE). I have been involved in the NHS’s Fuller Stocktake, Hewitt Report, the UK Commission on Pharmacy leadership, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Vision for Pharmacy professional practice and more recently CPE’s Vision for Community Pharmacy led by the Nuffield Trust and the Kings Fund. These opportunities have allowed me to be the community pharmacist in the ‘room’ who can share her grass-roots experiences and shape how Community Pharmacy develops and is further integrated within the NHS. Over the next few years, roles and opportunities like this will be key as the NHS evolves with all the issues it currently faces to become a modern and proactive health service.

As I reflect on over 75 years of being the ‘chemist’ on Erskine Road, I want to pay tribute to all the staff who have worked in the Pharmacy, past and present. The NHS can only achieve what it does because of the dedication, commitment and compassion of those who work as part of it.

Here’s to celebrating the NHS on its milestone and to many more years of service to come!

The theme of International Women’s Day on Tuesday 8th March 2022 is #BreakTheBias

When I reflect on situations where I’ve broken the bias, I’m surprised to realise I have quite a few! I hadn’t taken myself as a rebel or as an activist but I guess I’ve always felt a high sense of injustice in many situations in my life and have worked hard to challenge bias by not conforming to the expected norm and shattering pre-conceived beliefs. 

Being the only Indian girl in my primary school and challenging racism at an early age, whilst heart-breaking as a child, probably gave me the guts to really feel and believe my skin colour and heritage shouldn’t hold me back in anything I do. 

If I think of my career as a pharmacist I’ve challenged many biases. When I first took over my pharmacy, I noticed how many of the other Asian owners of businesses in my parade of shops had changed their name to an ‘English’ name so people could pronounce it. I felt really strongly about people learning my name, Reena Barai, whilst not the hardest name to pronounce, it still proved difficult for some in the early days. Now when people come in and say my name straight away, it feels like a little win. 

My mother and I have run the pharmacy together for the last 19 years, again breaking the bias of a ‘father & son’ business. I still get reps come into the pharmacy and ask to speak to the owner and when I or my mum say ‘it’s me’, we get a look of total surprise! 

I remember attending a contractor event that my LPC had organised when I first became a contractor, walking into a room full of (older) men and looking around to see no one that looked like me at all. It made me determined to find other female contractors like me and I set up my own LPC – the ‘Ladies Pharmacy Club’, a group of like minded female contractors.

I started my career as a hospital pharmacist and was respected for my clinical knowledge and interventions by the doctors I worked alongside with. When I took over my community pharmacy, I remember ringing up a local GP as I was concerned about a prescription he’d written and being told in so many words ‘I’m the doctor, who are you to question my prescribing?’. I was really shocked and realised I had to break an inter professional bias. So I made myself visible locally, I worked one day a week for the then PCT, then later as a Community Pharmacy lead for my then CCG and now as a Community Pharmacist PCN lead for my local PCN. These roles allowed me to show the value of Community Pharmacists in primary care and gain trust amongst my GP colleagues. So much so that the particular GP who recently retired, came into my pharmacy on his last day of work, to say thank you to me for the leadership I have shown locally and for the care I’d shown our mutual patients. Another little ‘win’ that actually meant a lot to me.  

As a mother of two boys, I’ve challenged the bias of traditional boy & girl roles. I remember my brother telling me off (jokingly) when I bought a toy kitchen for my boys to play with when they were young. I remember telling him I’m raising modern men who can do anything & everything! 

Then when I decided to put myself forward for a national Pharmacy board role, I did this because I knew I wanted to make a difference, but a big part of my decision was to challenge an all male board in an organisation. When I was elected as the first ever Asian women to join the organisation in its near 100 year history I felt like I challenged one of the biggest biases of gender diversity.

Yet, whilst I feel proud of this achievement, I also feel incredibly sad. I don’t want to be the only women on a board and I feel determined to use my leverage to encourage others to put themselves forward in the future. It is from this wish that the Female Pharmacy Leaders Network was born. 

A conversation with two colleagues, Komal George and Harpreet Chana about the need to create a peer-mentoring network for women in Pharmacy led to us forming this network in 2021. Our initial aim was to encourage women to be more courageous and release their inner-leader. The network has grown beyond our wildest dreams and we are so excited to be co-hosting a virtual event for International Women’s day with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society on Thursday 10th March, 7pm to 8.30pm. 

At this event, we will hear from some inspiring pharmacy leaders who’ve challenged bias throughout their careers. It would be great to hear your stories of breaking bias at the event too. Register here to attend : https://events.rpharms.com/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=200239306&language=eng

One thing I have realised is that whilst we all have our own personal ‘breaking bias’ wins, collectively we can make a bigger difference. Hence why it’s so important to share our stories, inspire each other and find the courage to continue to #BreakTheBias.

I’ve had a very memorable day today celebrating 40 years in business.

If any of you have had a milestone birthday or anniversary you will relate to the fact that it is usually a time of reflection and reminiscence.  You wonder how time has flown, where did the years go, have I done what I hoped I would and what does the future have in store.  For me, this 40th year anniversary of my Pharmacy has made me quite nostalgic.

In February 1979, amidst the Winter of Discontent, my parents took a very big risk and bought S G Barai Pharmacy.  They bought it from a Pharmacist called Mr Thompson who had owned it for 30 years.  At the time my mum and dad had both wondered if they would ever last that long in business.  

I was a one year old baby and if any of you remember the winter of 1979, it was an extremely cold one.  We moved in to the flat above which had no heating and my mum remembers questioning if they had done the right thing on countless occasions.  I, of course, knew no better and each and every one of my childhood memories revolves around my Pharmacy. I remember preferring to sit listening to what was happening in the shop rather than playing with my toys.  I recall the way the shop used to look with the old fashioned medicine bottles and weighing scales.  I can recollect the sound of my dad using a typewriter to make labels and the smell of the creams he used to make by hand using slabs and spatulas.  I spent many days happily playing in empty Pampers boxes in the back of the Pharmacy.  I was in heaven when my dad let me occasionally go in the shop and talk to customers.  

I have one very clear memory of my dad picking me up from nursery one day and the nursery teacher telling him that we had spent the day talking about what we want to be when we grow up and I had very confidently told my nursery teacher that I was going to be a Pharmacist just like my daddy.  I still remember his proud face when she told him of my intentions to follow in his footsteps.  Sadly my dad never got to see me graduate or qualify as a Pharmacist.  For any of you who have lost a parent (too soon) you will know that you are always left wondering what would they have felt or thought if they could see you now?  For me, keeping the Pharmacy going in his name is probably the best tribute I could ever pay to him.  Every day when I open the Pharmacy with the set of keys he used to use, I feel like his legacy lives on through me.

A week before my Dad passed away he asked if I could take him to the Pharmacy.  I watched him gaze at the Pharmacy with a look of love, fondness and happiness that most would reserve for loved ones.  For 6 days a week, 52 weeks a year since 1979 he had given that Pharmacy his all.  He had built a relationship with a community that had embraced him and his family.  He loved his job, the shop and all that went with it.  He was a calm, content and kind man who was respected by all his patients, paid testament to by the number of patients who still talk about him today and cried with my mum when he passed away.  

I’m sure most independent contractors today feel the same way about their Pharmacies  as our Pharmacies are so much more than just a place of work.  It also helps to understand why every criticism of our sector actually cuts so deep, because of the intense emotional connection we have with our Pharmacies.  I love my shop, my staff even joke with me that when I die they will leave the urn of my ashes on the counter as they know that’s where I’m happiest.

My mum, as a non-Pharmacist, stepped up to the challenge of continuing the business whilst I studied and pursued an initial career as a Hospital Pharmacist.  I am so grateful to the various Pharmacists who worked with her in those years before I took over in 2003.  When I did take over, I have to admit I did so rather begrudgingly as I was enjoying  a great career in Hospital Pharmacy.  I had just completed a clinical diploma and I assumed (incorrectly) that my clinical knowledge would not be put to good use in Community Pharmacy and that it wouldn’t be as exciting as my hospital role.  Boy was I wrong, I realised quite quickly that just being clinical wasn’t enough in community Pharmacy.  I ended up having to sign up to every CPD event going to increase my knowledge in order to be the best Community Pharmacist I could be.  I lacked skills in patient-centred consultations, business management and leadership.  I continuously had to learn new things to keep up with the changing role of Community Pharmacists as the scope of services we were providing increased.  I did all of this in my own time giving up precious evenings, weekends and often at my own expense of paying a locum to work in my Pharmacy whilst I attended training events.  I mention this as the recent debate over the use of the word ‘clinical’ and ‘Community Pharmacists’ has vexed me considerably.  In addition the sector has been criticised for not accessing the training available via the Pharmacy Integration fund and in my case that is because I’ve already done most of them.   I have not stayed stagnant professionally and am part of a workforce that is already highly skilled but not utilised to its full potential.

Another thing I realised was that in hospital it had been the multi-disciplinary team that had appreciated my clinical knowledge, where as in community it was my patients.  In hospital, I helped patients but only to never see them again,  as when they were discharged that was it.  The beauty of community Pharmacy was that ongoing personal relationship I was able to develop with my patients, in my case over decades and generations.  Community Pharmacy offers an enviable continuity of care that no other health care sector can provide any more.  In addition, the fact we offer this care with no appointment needed or time restriction on the conversations is just about the best the NHS could ever ask for.

I could extol the virtues of Community Pharmacy till the cows come home as many of you know how passionate I am about it, and yet for the first time in 40 years, I’m not feeling as optimistic about the future of my little Pharmacy.  A very good friend of mine said to me recently that the future is bright for Pharmacists, but not for Pharmacies.  In my opinion the funding cuts that have been imposed on us have created a cruel ‘survival of the fittest’ and this randomised attrition of the community Pharmacy network is what scares me the most.  

I would love to say Community Pharmacy is at a crossroads, however that would imply that there are some clear paths ahead.  Instead I feel like Community Pharmacy is at a roundabout with many exits.  The Satellite Navigation system keeps getting confused and is sending mixed messages as to which exit is the best one to take and so inevitably you have to keep going around the roundabout waiting for clarity.  This obviously leads to frustration, resentment and despondency, with many giving up, some staying put waiting for direction, others obediently going round and round and some going out on a limb and hopefully creating their own path to the unknown.  

In the bigger scheme of things, if I look around me there are so many shops closing down and some well known high street names too.  Changing consumer habits, expectations and behaviours are proving to be challenging.  Sometimes I think if the big companies can’t cut it, what hope have I?  

40 years is an incredible achievement of which I am very proud.  I have to pay tribute to my mum who has been the raison d’être for me and the Pharmacy.  She has worked tirelessly in the shop for the last 40 years through much adversity.  She has been my inspiration and motivation throughout and we are a formidable mother and daughter team.  I’ve had the most lovely day today talking to every customer that came into my Pharmacy about our anniversary and in turn they all responded with the warmest wishes and words of encouragement.  Who knows if we can continue for decades to come, I know I will certainly do my best to carry on for the sake of my loyal patients and community.  I am very aware that you can’t  do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow.  Change is the only constant and something that I am not fearful of.  Whatever the future holds in store for my Pharmacy, I’m confident I will be able to look back on it and say I gave it my all.