Samford pharmacy delivering health outcomes to the masses

The 2016 Community Engagement winner in the Guild Pharmacy of the Year awards, TerryWhite Chemmart Samford in Queensland, has once again highlighted to the community it serves the strong links it has with local GPs and allied health professionals.

For the past five years the pharmacy has run the Samford Health Expo which from small beginnings of 15 stalls this year attracted 100 stalls – with others turned away.

Pharmacist Karen Brown said the expo this year had been a phenomenal success, and for the first time a medical centre had taken a stall.

“We had two GPs there all day which was tremendous and really showed the community how we are working collaboratively for them and how important the doctors believed it was to be represented there,” she said.

“We also had a whole range of allied health professionals and we were all situated near one another so we could refer inquiries to our colleagues when necessary.

“It was a great advertisement for how we as health professionals all work together for the community.”

Ms Brown said of the 100 stalls, 90 were health and wellbeing related.

“We also had a stage where we had demonstrations as well as performances by students from the local schools,” she said.

“It ran from 9am until 1 pm and we had hundreds of people come through.

“I think our stall was the most popular which was to be expected as we were a focus of the expo.

“This year we had a wheel which we used for giveaways and this was very popular.

“The giveaways were all health related and enabled us to start talks with the winner in the pharmacy and engage with them about their health.

“In the past we have done screenings like blood pressure but the wheel giveaway concept this year proved really popular.”

Ms Brown said the growth of the expo had exceeded expectations but she was looking at keeping it to the size of this year’s event in the future.

“We really want to ensure it remains health focused and this is why we turned away some stalls this year,” she said.

“The stalls we had, and the people who came to the expo, all said the size this year was perfect.

“And the balance of stalls was great. Along with health and wellbeing we had staffs representing groups like Men’s Shed, the Blood Bank and CWA.

“The people who came to the expo really got a lot out of it and as a pharmacy business we got a lot out of it as well.

“It has developed into a customer-to-pharmacy event as well as business-to-business event.”

Ms Brown said planning for next year’s event was already underway to some extent.

“We had stall holders come to us during the event to book for next year and we even had people who came as visitors this year inquire about having a stall next year,” she said.

“This is a true community event which brings the people and the health businesses in the Samford area together and its popularity shows the community has been wanting something like this.

“For us it is great to be able to engage with the community and also to highlight what we offer and also how all the health professionals in the area work together.”

Think your pharmacy is up to the Pharmacy of the Year challenge? The 2019 Guild Pharmacy of the Year competition marks the 20th year the Guild has been celebrating excellence in pharmacy practice. If your pharmacy has what it takes to be our next champion, enter online at pharmacyoftheyear.com.au.