What we do

The Pharmaceutical Service for East Lancashire is provided from our main pharmacy at the Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital and a further department at Burnley General Teaching Hospital. The departments provide a wide range of pharmaceutical services to a number of users, including all wards, clinics and departments, local hospices and community hospitals.

Please note, the Outpatients Pharmacy at Blackburn has moved from Level 1 to a portacabin on Old Bank Lane near the main entrance (it previously housed the Renal Unit). 

Our staff are pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and assistant technical officers working together to ensure that the right medicines are available to clinical areas and that medicines are individualised to meet the needs of patients. Safety is our paramount concern and we work hard to ensure that the 3600 different medicines handled in the Trust are used to their best advantage without causing harm.

We provide the following services:

Aseptic and Chemotherapy Units

Manufacture chemotherapy preparations and intravenous medicines for cancer patients, neonates and the wards as required.

Anticoagulant Outpatient Clinics

A dedicated Pharmacist/nurse team lead on an anticoagulation service at both Blackburn and Burnley outpatients and also in community health clinics.

Medicines Information/Medicines Management

Our medicines information service offers advice, information and guidance on all medications.  Our pharmacist supports the East Lancashire Medicines Management Board to promote excellence in the use of medicines.  The board includes local GPs, consultants, pharmacists, clinical directors and other health professionals.

Ward services

Teams provide pharmaceutical care to patients on the wards, checking and dispensing prescription medication through the use of mobile technology. Support and advice is given to Doctors and Nurses on use of medicines and prescribing and alongside this, Pharmacy staff undertake medication reviews and counselling of patients. We also refer eligible patients with complex medicines to their community pharmacy at discharge to keep communications safe and facilitate ongoing support once patients are at home.  

Dispensing

The Pharmacy team supply stock medicines and items specific for individual patients to all wards, clinics, theatres, departments, community clinics and hospices as well as medicines for patients to take home. 

We strongly encourage patients to bring their medicines in from home if they are admitted to hospital – this helps to keep patients safe as we are able to check those medicines and avoids missed doses. The Trust operates a Green Bag Scheme to encourage this, especially via ambulance crews and care home admissions.  

On average, each day we:
  • Dispense 400 items to patients individually for their inpatient stay, and to take home
  • Replenish and check ward stock cupboards of medicines, supplying 300 items a day, including outside clinics/locations
  • Aseptically prepare 300 items a day for chemotherapy patients, patients requiring parental nutrition and some high-risk IV medicines  to some of our most poorly patients in our aseptic and chemotherapy suites
  • Supply over 300 dispensed items a day to outpatients
  • Refer around 35 patients to their community pharmacist for post discharge help with their medicines
  • Confirm about 90 patients’ drug histories
  • Check and authorise about 120 electronic discharge letters
  • Make around 200 clinical interventions to patients’ medicines or medicine treatment plans
  • Check warfarin doses for 250 patients
  • Visit 8 patients in their home to support them with their medicines

Edward Mensforth – Senior Pharmacist – Training and Education

Steven Simpson - Chief Pharmacist

Vince Goodey – Assistant Director of Pharmacy Clinical Services

Clare Mackie – Lead Technician

Michelle Randall – Assistant Director of Pharmacy Support Services

Hannah Robinson – Senior Clinical Pharmacist lead for Medicine

Emma Watson – Senior Clinical Pharmacist lead for Surgery and Family Care

Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital Outpatient Dispensary: 01254 733507 or 01254 733508

Burnley General Teaching Hospital Outpatient Dispensary: 01282 804593

Medicines Information: 01282 803004/13004

Inpatient dispensaries: RBH 01254 732253

                                      BGH 01282 804338

Aseptic Services: 01254 734170

The outpatient pharmacy is delivered in collaboration with Lloyds Pharmacy. For outpatient prescriptions please visit the Lloyds Pharmacy.

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Lloyds at the Royal Blackburn site opening hours:

Monday – Friday 08:30 to 18:00

Saturday 09:00 to 13:00

Sunday – closed

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Lloyds Pharmacy at the Burnley site opening hours:

Monday – Friday 08:30 – 17:30

Saturday, Sunday, Bank Holidays closed

The inpatient pharmacy on level 1 at Blackburn will dispense urgent outpatient prescriptions when Lloyds is closed until 16:00 at weekends and Bank Holidays. Please ring before travelling if unsure.

June 2012

Alistair Gray, Clinical Services Lead Pharmacist, receives the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Medicines Safety Award.  Alistair carried out a 6 month project to ensure patient’s medicines are correct when they are moved from different care environments and the development of an electronic tracking method for Pharmacists to identify which patients are in need of review of their medicines. He also made changes to the way staff record alterations to patient’s medicines before they are discharged from hospital. 

June 2016

ELHT Pharmacy’s innovative electronic hospital to community pharmacy referral system (Refer-to-Pharmacy) receives the Patient Safety Award for Best Emerging Technology and IT. More information is available at www.elht.nhs.uk/refer

September 2016

Alistair Gray, Clinical Services Lead Pharmacist, receives the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Leadership in Pharmacy award at their annual conference. This was awarded for leading on the development and delivery of Refer-to-Pharmacy.

November 2017

Refer-to-Pharmacy receives the Building Better Healthcare award for Best Communications or IT tool.

February 2017

Alistair Gray, Clinical Services Lead Pharmacist, receives the Innovation Agency’s Innovation Champion award for leading on the development and delivery of Refer-to-Pharmacy.

April 2017

At ELHT’s annual star awards there were four recipients from Pharmacy:

  • Emma Dodd – Clinical Worker of the Year
  • Ana Batista – Rising Star
  • Alistair Gray – Outstanding Achievement

Pharmacy Team – Team of the Year

The East Lancashire Health Economy Formulary has been developed in collaboration between East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, Blackburn with Darwen Clinical Commissioning Group and East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group. It is endorsed by the East Lancashire Medicines Management Board which oversees Medicines Management issues across the East Lancashire Health Economy.

To access the formulary please click below;

http://www.elmmb.nhs.uk/formularies/joint-medicines-formulary/