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Mike Smith puts the world to rights€¦

I had the pleasure of visiting the delightful town of Pateley Bridge in Yorkshire recently to mark the celebration of 50 years' service by pharmacy assistant Margaret Kendrew. The pharmacist proprietor, Samina Khan, has developed an excellent team at Pateley Bridge Pharmacy and it is this spirit that community pharmacy is all about for me.

Margaret started work in the pharmacy in 1963 €“ coincidentally the same year I started my apprenticeship with Boots at 81 High Street, Erdington in Birmingham. I thought it would be interesting to share with you some of my memories of that time, but first a little more about Margaret.

She started as a counter assistant at the age of 15 €“ earning £3 per week. Most medicines were compounded in the pharmacy: labels were handwritten, medicine bottles with corks were used and they made many of their own hand creams, cough mixtures and potions. The pharmacy was served by two wholesalers €“ Bleasdales and Hersbrook Goodall, long before UniChem or Alliance Healthcare came on the scene.

Margaret is clearly an invaluable member of staff at the pharmacy and she has developed her role more recently to include helping in the dispensary.

Her experience is matchless and she is a very supportive mentor to the newer members of staff. In addition she is recognised locally as an 'unsung hero' for her work with the elderly, which includes home visits and ensuring their wellbeing. She is loved and respected by colleagues and customers alike and this was reflected by the fact that the retirement event, organised by Samina and supported by our Alphega Pharmacy business mentor Pauline Chalder, was attended by over 250 people.

It was a great pleasure to spend a day with the team. I am sure that there are many more Margarets around the country. They are the backbone of what pharmacy is all about: knowing your patients, compassion, sympathy, loyalty and integrity included.

I remember my time as a Boots apprentice with great affection. My apprentice master was a delightful man called Emlyn Rees. He taught me much about pharmacy and I very quickly became aware of the importance and responsibility of joining this eminent profession.

Visits from the local territorial general manager (TGM) struck terror into my heart and in fact nearly led to the end of my career. He asked me to make Mist Mag €“ Trisil and Belladonna (a popular treatment at the time for abdominal discomfort) €“ and I left out the Belladonna tincture! That was a black mark, before I even embarked on my career.

I very quickly learnt the importance of concentrating on the job and avoiding the obvious distractions experienced by an 18-year- old working in a shop full of very pretty young ladies.

I also experienced the excitement of the Christmas rush €“ including the last-minute purchases of gifts by men who had enjoyed the excesses of the office party and then remembered at the last minute to buy their loved ones perfume or a gift coffret. These were great times that gave me a real appetite for the commercial side of pharmacy.

When I lecture to pharmacy students on a community pharmacy career, they are amazed how our profession has changed. Back then there were no computers, only handwritten prescriptions (many impossible to read) and a tremendous amount of secundum artem €“ great days!

Despite our real efforts, many of the preparations that we dispensed probably had little more than placebo effect compared with the potent armoury of medicines we have today. Nevertheless, our patients had great faith in them, and we generally made our patients feel better.

_{Mike Smith is chairman of Alliance Healthcare, mike.h.smith@alliance-healthcare.co.uk}