Bilal has undertaken a SWOT analysis for his pharmacy. He has identified a key weakness: he cannot spend enough time with patients to complete the clinical services required under his NHS contract. He finds making time for consultation services is difficult because he is too involved in the day-to-day running of the pharmacy. He is concerned about the paperwork involved with the latest set of contractual requirements. He’s barely coping now; he knows next year to stand still he will be required to do even more.

What Bilal does have is a good team. They are highly skilled and he believes they are capable of taking on more to help. Having thought about the activities that need to happen in the pharmacy, he has identified two expanded roles.

Ideally, he wants to delegate the day-to-day management of the dispensary to a team member who will take responsibility for all the processes, including clinical governance, stock management and managing the dispensary team. This role needs to be undertaken by a pharmacy technician.

The second role is to undertake the business administration, such as the payroll, managing invoices, staff rotas and holidays. This role does not need to be undertaken by one of the pharmacy’s registered professionals, but it does require attention to detail and an attitude to get jobs done.

Bilal has written job descriptions and plans to explain the changes to the team as a group, giving individuals the opportunity to apply for the new roles.

Pause to reflect

Undertake a quick SWOT analysis for an aspect of your pharmacy. Look inside the business to identify your strengths and weaknesses and outside to understand what opportunities you might take advantage of and what threats you need to mitigate against. Complete the two boxes on the left and the two at the top of the empty grid in Figure 1. Now ask yourself:

• How can we use our strengths to capitalise on the opportunities?

• How can we overcome our weaknesses to capitalise on the opportunities?

• How can we use our strengths to mitigate the threats?

• How must we overcome our weaknesses to mitigate the threats?

Complete the rest of the grid in Figure 1.