What we do

The department is responsible for the purchasing, storage, dispensing, distribution, transport and disposal of medicines at Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

The Pharmacy department works with staff across the hospitals to make sure prescribing is safe and effective, and to advise patients about how best to manage their medicines. We aim to provide a high standard of pharmaceutical care to all users. This includes:

  • The safe, timely and economic procurement and supply of drugs
  • The safe, appropriate and cost effective use of drugs

In achieving these aims we will:

  1. Work within the framework of the law and professional guidance
  2. Strive to keep our knowledge and techniques up to date
  3. Encourage staff development
  4. Support teamwork and co-operation with others

The Pharmacy department is situated on the main corridor of the hospital. It provides a comprehensive service to all hospitals within the Trust as well as a number of external organisations.

The department is open Monday – Sunday, 8.45am – 5.00pm and outside of these hours offers an on-call service.

The department can be contacted on: 01253 953780.

For Outpatient Pharmacy information, contact details and opening times, please see the Outpatient Pharmacy page.

The Lloyds outpatient pharmacy at Blackpool Victoria HospitalLloyds Pharmacy is located in the hospital main entrance and dispenses Outpatient prescriptions on behalf of the Hospitals Trust.

The Pharmacy dispenses Outpatient prescriptions written on ‘in-house’ prescription forms. They are unable to dispense the type of prescriptions written by GPs.

The Pharmacy is open:

Monday to Friday, 9.00am – 6.00pm.

On weekends and bank holidays, this service is provided by the in-patient Pharmacy.

In addition to the dispensing service, the Pharmacy offers an extensive range of over the counter medicines and toiletry products for sale.

For further information, contact Lloyds Pharmacy on: 01253 957243.

If you are being admitted to our hospital, please bring all of your current medication in with you.

This includes: tablets, liquids, creams, inhalers, eye drops and herbal medication.

Please ensure you bring in an original pack and not strips of tablets.

We ask you to bring these in so we can utilise them during your stay to ensure that you remain familiar with your medication and it also gives us up to date information of exactly the medication you are currently taking.

If you have been given a green patients own medication bag from a pre-op clinic, please use this to bring your medication with you.

The Dispensary team at Blackpool Victoria HospitalThe team consists of Senior Technicians, Pharmacists, Technicians, student Technicians and Pharmacy Assistants.

We provide a service to all Blackpool Teaching Hospital wards, theatres, clinics and departments and North Lancashire locations of Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust.

A Pharmacist is present to provide a clinical check on all prescriptions, this ensures the safe and effective use of medicines. Once this check has been completed, the prescription is dispensed by one of the team.

The dispensed items are then accuracy checked by a BTEC-Accredited Checking Technician. After final checks have been completed, the items are then dispatched to the relevant area. The majority of medication is dispensed via an automated dispensing system / robot. All medication is stored within the system and as a dispensing label is produced, a message is sent to pick the item requested and it is then delivered to the person requested via a series of lifts and conveyors.

Upon discharge from hospital, all patients will be issued with a minimum of seven days supply of medicines.

Patients attending outpatient clinics, who are issued a prescription, will be given an initial supply from the Outpatient Pharmacy for any items that are required urgently.

A Clinical Pharmacist at Blackpool Victoria HospitalThe Pharmacy department at the Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs over 120 people including; Pharmacists, Pharmacy Technicians, Pharmacy Assistants, Support workers and Clerical staff, all of whom play a vital role in providing medication and advice to our patients.

A Clinical Pharmacist is assigned to the majority of wards within the main hospital site, including; Acute Medicine, Surgical, Cardiac, Stroke, Oncology, Haematology, Paediatric and Neonatal directorates.

Ward-based activities include:

  • Completing medicines reconciliation on admission – Medication history taking, and drug chart review
  • Supply of medication for inpatients
  • Providing prescribing advice to improve safe, effective and economic prescribing
  • Therapeutic drug monitoring of medicines such as Digoxin, Theophylline, Lithium and Gentamicin
  • The identification and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs)
  • Education of Doctors, Nurses, and other healthcare professionals
  • Educating and counselling patients about their medication
  • Writing Pharmacy-led discharges in order to speed up the discharge process.

A ‘One-stop Dispensing’ service is available for many of the wards across the Trust. This is to aid our commitment to making better use of NHS resources; minimising medication wastage and significantly reducing waiting times for discharge prescriptions. The service involves the assessment and utilisation of patients’ own medication during their hospital stay and labelling all new medications dispensed ready for discharge.

The Pharmacist works as part of the multidisciplinary ward team and acts as a source of advice and information promoting safe medicine use. They also assist in the accurate transfer of information regarding medication changes between primary and secondary healthcare providers (i.e between the hospital and GP surgeries)  Pharmacists will write ‘Pharmacy- Led’ discharges which has been shown to speed up the discharge process and reduce waiting times for your medications.

Pharmacists additional duties include: the introduction of new medicines onto the hospital formulary, financial reporting, policy and procedure development as well as the implementation of clinical guidelines such as those issued by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Patient Interaction with Pharmacy

If you have any queries or concerns regarding any aspect of your medications, ask your Ward Pharmacist who visits on a daily basis. For example, if you’ve have any new medications started or any medication changes, the Ward Pharmacist can give advice and help you understand your medicines better.

A “Transfer of Care” referral can be sent to your community Pharmacy of choice, so the Community Pharmacist can also follow up any medication changes. Please ask any member of the Pharmacy team for further details.

We clinically screen the appropriateness of medicines used in the treatment of cancer. These medicines include chemotherapy and supportive treatments used to reduce or manage the side effects of chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy can be taken orally in tablet or capsule form or administered by injection.

If your chemotherapy treatment is to be taken as a tablet, the Doctor will prescribe enough tablets for a course of treatment on a prescription which you will then take to the Macmillan Pharmacy for screening. All oral chemotherapy treatments are dispensed from the outpatient Lloyds Pharmacy located in the main entrance of the hospital.

We will supply you with sufficient medication for that course and advice will be given on how to take your medication.

If your chemotherapy is to be administered by injection, the Doctor will prescribe the medicines using an electronic prescription. The prescription will be accessed by the Pharmacy department before the chemotherapy is due. A Pharmacist will double check the prescription before the chemotherapy is prepared to ensure the doses of all the medicines prescribed are appropriate for you.

Once your chemotherapy has been confirmed by a member of staff from the Haematology or Oncology Day Unit, Pharmacy will prepare it. A prescription will also be dispensed by the outpatient Pharmacy which provides any necessary supportive treatment e.g anti-sickness tablets ready for you to take home after your chemotherapy has been administered.

Staff are available within the Pharmacy department to answer questions which you may have about your treatment. If you are admitted to the Haematology ward for a stay in hospital, a member of Pharmacy staff will visit the ward daily and can answer any questions you may have about your treatment.

Pharmacy Department area at Blackpool Victoria Hospital
Windmill Pharmacy Offices in Macmillan Unit

The Pharmacy office is situated in the Macmillan Windmill Unit where a Pharmacist is available or contactable for the screening of prescriptions if you attend a clinic on:

Mondays- 9.00am – 1.00pm

Tuesdays- 9.00am – 1.00pm

Wednesdays- 2.00pm – 5.00pm

Thursdays- 2.00pm – 5.00pm

Outside of these times, there is a Pharmacist available for general enquires in the main inpatient Pharmacy located on the main hospital corridor.

The Technical Services section of the Pharmacy department is involved in the preparation of medicines that are not available commercially in a ready-to-use format. The majority of this work is concerned with aseptic preparation (see below) but some staff are also involved in extemporaneous preparation (see below).

The team is comprised of Pharmacists, Technicians and Support workers.

Aseptic Preparation

This is the preparation and supply of products that must be completely sterile before administration to the patient.

In order for this to be achieved, they are made within special workstations which are supplied with purified air.

The majority of aseptically prepared items are either Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPNs) or chemotherapy.

TPNs

These contain all the essential nutrients to sustain a patient if they are unable to eat food in the normal way. TPN bags containing carbohydrates, fats and salts in a 2.5 litre formulation are purchased. These standard bags then have vitamins, trace elements and extra minerals added as necessary.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy drugs are used in the treatment of cancer.

They are supplied in a ready-to-administer form to the ward which means that staff are not exposed to the toxic nature of the medicine.

By working within the controlled environment of the aseptic suite, the Pharmacy Operators are also protected whilst preparing the medication.

Extemporaneous Preparation

While most medicines are commercially available, some medicines cannot be purchased from large companies. Extemporaneous preparation describes the work involved in supplying a medicine in a form or dose that is not otherwise available. The Technical Services department is involved in the manufacture of:

  • Liquid formulations
  • Eye drops
  • Creams
  • Ointments.

Medicines Information is a speciality within the Pharmacy Service that supports the safe, effective use of medicines by provision of evidence-based information and advice.

Services Aims

  • To support medicines management within Blackpool Teaching NHS Foundation Trust
  • To support the pharmaceutical care of individual patients.

Who provides the service?

Qualified NHS Pharmacists who have undertaken additional training in the speciality provide the service.

The Medicines Information Service is based at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and covers the Blackpool and Fylde coast region. It primarily serves Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists and other appropriate healthcare professionals based in primary or secondary care.

Services Provided

The service provides evaluated information and advice regarding all aspects of medicine use including:

  • Adverse drug reactions
  • Interactions between medicines
  • Safety of medicines in pregnancy and breastfeeding mothers
  • Safety of drugs in impaired hepatic/renal function
  • Dose and frequency of medicines.

Resources

The information is based on carefully evaluated and researched data.

The Medicines Information Service has access to a comprehensive range of specialist reference resources.

Investment in information technology hardware and training allows the service fast and efficient access to the very latest on-line journals and databases. Medicines Information is therefore capable of providing accurate and well- sourced information on demand.

A clinical trial is a particular type of clinical research that compares one treatment with another. It may involve patients or healthy people, or both.

Pharmacy has a vital role in relation to clinical research, which is to safeguard patients, healthcare professionals and the Trust by ensuring Investigational Medicinal Products (IMPs) are appropriate for use and are procured, handled, stored and used safely and correctly.

We ensure that IMPs are managed and dispensed in accordance to the study protocol and that clinical trial procedures comply with relevant guidelines and regulations.

The Pharmacy Clinical Trial Team consists of a Pharmacist and team of Pharmacy Technicians who are solely designated to the day to day management of more than 50 clinical trials. Some of the daily duties include:

  • Reviewing study protocols for site feasibility
  • Writing and approving dispensing procedures
  • Staff training
  • Randomisation of products
  • The safe and secure ordering, receipt, storage, issue and destruction of Investigational Medicinal Products (IMP) used in clinical trials
  • Accurate record keeping
  • Audit and monitoring of clinical trial activity.

If you are considering taking part in research, we would encourage you to contact your Doctor, health professional or Research Nurse for further information.

Research and Development

In addition you can contact:
The Research and Development Team
Tel: 01253 955547
Email: bfwh.researchideas@nhs.net
or contact: Patient Relations on 01253 955588.