Ulster Hospital’s Lead Oncology Clinical Pharmacist John Houston has described, the at times, unseen role he and his team perform at the Macmillan Unit as, “a very rewarding job to work in as we celebrate World Pharmacist Day.” The Comber man has been in post for over a year, providing specialist pharmacy support to the Doctors and Nurses in the Unit.
Today, Wednesday September 25, focuses on the extensive, specific training that Pharmacists have and put to use every day to ensure expert patient health.
John and the team work to ensure that patient care is first and foremost as well as answering any questions patients have or allaying any uncertainties they may have regarding their Chemotherapy treatments.
John said, “It is our role to carry out the clinical checking of Chemotherapy prescriptions, to support the clinics that are running each day and provide education, especially when the patient starts a new cycle of treatment. We are very much on hand to answer any questions the patient might have.”
When describing the role of a Pharmacist within a hospital setting, John described it as a, “Great career of choice.”
John continued, “There are a lot of options when you go into Pharmacy, particularly in the hospital sector. Chemotherapy is quite a complex medicine, it’s really important that we are here and we carry out that clinical check. Oncology is an area that is changing all the time, especially as new medicines come out – we need to keep ourselves up to speed. It is an exciting place to work, we have a lot of patient contact and it is a very rewarding job to work in.”
John’s colleague Pharmacist Jessica Anderson added, “As well as clinically checking the patients’ prescriptions, it’s so important to guide and advise the patient on their supportive medication, the side effects that can occur and how to take that medicine. More and more we are becoming prescribers and taking part in clinics to prescribe anti-cancer therapies. I am starting my course to become a ‘Proscriber’ and I’m very much hoping to develop it within my role here in the Unit.”
Jessica continued, “I think as Pharmacist we can sometimes fade into the background a bit. I think increasingly we are becoming more and more valuable with our clinical skills. As part of World Pharmacist Days I think it is important to celebrate that especially as we continue our work and develop our roles here at the hospital.”
