Tohidul Islam has been a pharmacist for over 20 years, now working in primary care, and has been training to be an independent prescriber. In 2018, he founded The Pharmacist Cooperative, a peer-to-peer network that has grown into one of the UK's largest platforms for pharmacists to organise, share intelligence and push back collectively. 

His interests sit at the intersection of clinical practice, AI and innovation. Islam is also the founder of Syrkle.net, a professional network used by over 5,000 UK pharmacists, and is currently developing health tech and fintech ventures aimed at some of the systemic problems he's watched go unsolved for two decades. 

In this podcast, Islam shares why he started The Pharmacist Cooperative and why growing the network to work with, and not replace, other pharmacy bodies was important.

He debates the roles of locums, addressing the power imbalance they deal with, what their expectations should be and whether cheaper rates help a pharmacy get better value out of their locum.

Islam shares about his other business ventures, including trying to set up an agency and building a finance app.