Like many of his counterparts in community pharmacy, pharmacist Atul Patel is exasperated by the key issues facing the sector currently. 

He attributes it to the “level of support the government gives us, and the archaic remuneration system that ties us down”. 

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Having opened Lincoln Pharmacy in Tower Hamlets, London in 1983, and running Southwark’s Bonamy Pharmacy, he questions how sustainable the future is. 

“We're not getting the help,” he says. “How do you cope with those losses? You can't, so you focus on private services. You progress on all the other bits that will bring in income.” 

One way that is helping, even if only slightly against financial difficulties, is employing pharmacy apprentices. 

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“We need a workforce that is affordable, an apprenticeship is killing two birds with one stone. You're creating a skill mix. So, I tell each one of my apprentices, don't look at this as the beginning of income, look at it as your university, but you're getting paid to learn.  

“Look at it that way with the mindset of developing skills, then we will invest in you. Because you will then be able to do clinical services, so I can concentrate on other services which will take pressure off the GPs.” 

“Patients ask for them” 

The investment into apprentices seems to be paying off for Patel. He currently has seven apprentices between his two pharmacies, having worked with around a dozen overall so far. 

At Lincoln Pharmacy where C+D meets Patel, two are working in the dispensary as the robotic dispensing system works through prescriptions behind them.  

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Maryam has gone straight into a level three pharmacy technician apprenticeship after finishing her Biomedical Science degree, while Taslima has just qualified from her level three apprenticeship. 

Patel’s enthusiasm for apprentices is not surprising considering he had a similar experience as a teenager. 

He worked in his uncle’s workshop repairing washing machines, fridges and vacuum cleaners. Even though Patel decided to go into pharmacy, seeing how his uncle ran his business partly inspired his career choice as he felt with the business side of pharmacy, he could be “in charge of my own destiny”. 

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Patel’s son Sachin now manages the pharmacies, and he shares how the apprentices have embodied the spirit of what community pharmacy is all about. 

“The biggest thing is developing their confidence,” says Sachin. “They want to stay here and keep growing, and it’s amazing to see patients are asking for them. They want to come back and just speak to them.” 

The pharmacy has supported apprentices from level one doing their counter assistant courses through to the level three technician apprenticeships, and Sachin says the latter have a big role to play as they give them more responsibilities. 

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“Technicians are incorporated into the same PGDs as pharmacists, [so] NHS services plus private services that pharmacists could only do once trained, those technicians also do that”. 

Patel trains them in vaccinations, otoscopy, and phlebotomy so they can take on private services that the pharmacy offers. They also help manage the app the pharmacy uses for prescriptions and services, and the apprentices help “recruit patients to start on the app”. 

Community support 

Patel’s investment into apprentices is not solely driven by the financial struggles impacting community pharmacy, as his background in supporting young people goes beyond his apprenticeship offerings. 

Decades ago, Patel met with local social entrepreneur Lord Andrew Mawson, who founded Bromley by Bow Centre down the road from Lincoln Pharmacy. It has built a reputation as a pioneering hub integrating community and healthcare services to benefit the local population. 

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Together they visited St Paul’s Way Secondary School which is opposite where Lincoln Pharmacy is based, and Mawson asked Patel if he could support the school in some way. 

The school was the first project in the St Paul’s Way transformation project that looked to take on building a new school along with a new health centre and housing projects on the street through a more integrated, joined-up approach. 

The £40 million rebuild of the school has since seen academic performance improve, with Patel claiming it has a 98% university entrance rate now.  

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For the past eighteen years, he has offered work experience to the school’s students at the pharmacy across the road, helping to integrate a community approach to supporting young people make their career choices. 

The school also offers students the chance to join a summer school led by Professor Brian Cox, aimed at encouraging young people into science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects (STEM). The famed professor even opened Lincoln Pharmacy when it moved down the road from the shopping parade location to its current premises back in July 2019. 

A lot of the apprentices are from the local area too, which Patel says he hopes “inspires other kids to do the same thing”. 

A success? 

He says there are some challenges with apprentices as their “academic level, absorption level – each one has different learning abilities”. 

“Remember these are kids who have maybe not made it academically but somehow are made for practical learning and learning as you go along. You're developing communication, you're developing confidences. 

“Some can absorb quickly and move forward. Some will be slow, but they all need nurturing.” 

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Most of them have stayed on to continue working with Patel and even when they haven’t, it’s helped them to pursue other opportunities by giving them qualifications to follow other ambitions.  

One of them moved onto nursing, but was able to do so having enough UCAS points from her level three apprenticeship with the pharmacy to apply for the course she wanted to do. 

“It can be a stepping stone to something different,” he says. “But it's also an opportunity. If you show us that you have the desire to grow with us, we will grow.”