News summary

Pharmacy launches translation service

Green Light pharmacy in Euston, London, has obtained funding for a health translation and education service for the local Bengali community.

South Camden Primary Care Group and Camden and Islington Health Authority are jointly funding the “Bengali Bridge Project”. The project is being run by Tim O’Donoghue and John Foreman, pharmacists at Green Light.

Mr O’Donoghue explained that the project included a weekly translation clinic held in the pharmacy’s consulting room. Consultations are patient-initiated and the clinic is run by a nurse and Nuhel Chaudry, a member of the pharmacy staff. A pharmacist is also on hand to give pharmaceutical input. Patients are able to have any medical issues translated from Bengali into English and are then given referral forms in English to take to their general practitioners.

“Bengali is the most widely spoken language apart from English in London schools, yet few GPs in London speak the language,” Mr O’Donoghue said.

Green Light Pharmacy is also running educational seminars for the Bengali community, which are held in the pharmacy every two weeks. They cover a range of issues, for example, chronic disease management themes (eg, diabetes), smoking cessation and travel medicine. The seminars also address cultural issues, such as the Bengali belief that asthma is a contagious disease, said Mr O’Donoghue.

The pharmacy itself, and the way in which the pharmacy staff work, has been designed so that the pharmacists spend 80 per cent of their time on the shop-floor rather than in the dispensary.

Empty pharmacy-only medicine packs are on open display to allow patients access to products before talking to the pharmacist.

Green Light also has a touch-screen computer that allows the patient to take away print-outs of health information.

During a visit to Green Light Pharmacy last week, Dr Jim Smith, chief pharmaceutical officer, Department of Health, said: “I am impressed at the excellent work that Tim O’Donoghue, John Foreman and their staff are doing to improve services in the local community. They are making an important contribution to realising the aims of the NHS Plan by improving access to pharmaceutical advice and care in an area of great need.” He added: “They are also helping to improve patients’ access to other health care services and to health information. In doing so, they are enabling people to understand better their health needs and to have more involvement in their own care and treatment.”

Green Light also has a second branch in Hillingdon. Vasundra Tailor, pharmaceutical advisor at Hillingdon Primary Care Trust, said: “It is an impressive venture, offering so much patient benefit. We have to find funding at a PCT level to support this kind of development so that other community pharmacists can see that there is funding available and follow suit.”

How to write successful bids for pharmacy services is examined in a news feature this week.

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