Our pharmacy department provides support to our clinical teams by:

• optimising the use of medicines
• safely dispensing medicines to patients
• conducting research
• providing education and training
• a 24-hour on-call pharmacy service

Our pharmacists are well supported by a team of pharmacy technicians, pharmacy assistants, clerical and scientific staff.

Every inpatient, discharge and outpatient prescription is reviewed by a pharmacist to ensure it is safe and appropriate for the patient.

Medicines are prepared and labelled by pharmacy technicians and pharmacy assistants and finally checked by a pharmacist or technician before being handed to the patient or sent to the ward.

Clinical trials and research

Our pharmacy department also includes an internationally recognised research centre that operates in conjunction with the University College London (UCL) School of Pharmacy. Our research focuses on medication safety and risk reduction, and is led by Professor Bryony Dean Franklin.

The department’s research interests involve four main strands:

• studying the causes of medication errors
• evaluating technologies that are designed to reduce errors
• the use of anti-infectives
• medicines adherence

Our research centre includes several research staff and PhD students, and provides support to other pharmacy staff carrying out research, audit and service evaluation. Find out more at UCL School of Pharmacy.

• Download the Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality Annual Report 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020