Lalit Tanna

Lalit Tanna, Pharmacist, Laurel Pharmacy, Kingston

“I qualified as a pharmacist in 1979 and first worked in St Thomas’ Hospital London, then at Upjohn Pharmaceutical Industry before setting up a community pharmacy in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.

“I strongly believe community pharmacists and pharmacy teams can deliver services outside of the pharmacy setting, as an outreach team to enhance the health and wellbeing of the public at a larger scale.  For example, I have conducted workshops for patients with long term conditions in conjunction with Kingston CCG’s Expert Patient Programme. The programme is for patients living with one or more long-term health conditions and my workshop covered getting the right medicines and social care issues.

“My health champions and I have also provided blood pressure monitoring services and health checks during self-care week in Kingston town centre and at Kingston Carnival, and we publish monthly healthy living newsletters on topics such as summer and sunburn, dental health and healthy eating.

“I have worked very closely with Kingston public health commissioners to establish a healthy living pharmacy (HLP) concept in Kingston.

“It always gives me great pleasure when a service provided by community pharmacy exceeds the expectations of the commissioners, such an example includes the number of health checks provided and the number of referrals made to the GP.  The feedback from the service users, GPs and other healthcare professionals is very encouraging.

“Laurel Pharmacy was awarded Healthy Living Pharmacy Level 2 which was and still is a very proud moment for myself and the pharmacy.  The award ceremony was organised by Kingston Public Health and Kingston Voluntary Action at the Kingston Hilton hotel.  It was to my delight that I was able to witness my health champions collecting HLP level 2 awards.”