Megan joined Sunderland GP Alliance in May 2016 as Senior Clinical Pharmacist for the chance to work closely with GP Practices and the opportunity to develop further the role of a pharmacist within a practice, with the vision of a clinical pharmacist prescriber being embedded as part of every practice team.
Her interest in primary care first came after Megan completed a pharmacist degree at Sunderland University and her pre-registration year at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle. She then moved back to the North East and worked at Sunderland Royal Hospital for a year. After a successful year at Sunderland Royal Hospital she then started work with IntraHealth for 13 years before joining Sunderland GP Alliance.
Megan has spent all her time in primary care within Sunderland practices, starting in 2006 as a supplementary prescriber delivering dyspepsia clinics in Sunderland. In 2010 Megan became an Independent Prescriber at a practice in Pennywell, exploring the impact of a pharmacist in a practice to help reduce workload and use less locum GP time. This service was so successful it expanded to more than 8 practices.
The role of Senior Clinical Pharmacist is patient focused and helps improve medicines compliance, understanding and helps encourage self-care. Megan believes that by working with GPs and wider clinical colleagues she will become an integral part of the team and expand awareness of the knowledge and skills pharmacists have to offer patients and practice staff. Sharing knowledge will help mentor junior pharmacists to develop their skills.
By Joining the Alliance, Megan is hoping that it becomes the norm to have a clinical pharmacist prescriber as part of every GP practice team. She hopes to further develop her own skills and support other pharmacists to do so to make a positive impact on patients’ health and understanding of their medicines. This role offers support from the CPPE training pathway, which is heavily invested by NHS England to change the skill mix of the primary care workforce, as part of a national pilot. She hopes that patients, GPs and other practice staff become used to having a clinical pharmacist based in a practice and this type of pharmacist’s role becomes more widely recognised.
Megan is a family person and has twin boys aged 6 to keep her active, as well as having a passion for biking and reading. Oh yeah and let’s not forget she once spent an afternoon riding around London on the back of a motorised sofa with Eddie the Eagle!