A pharmacist in Whitland has spoken of his delight at being selected as a regional finalist in the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s ‘I Love My Pharmacist’ competition.

Fifty-year-old Dave Edwards, pharmacist store manager at the town’s Boots on St. John Street, has been recognised as a star-performing pharmacist providing an outstanding service to the local community and now needs patients’ votes to reach the next stage of the competition.

Running for the second year and in conjunction with media partner C+D, following the success of I Love My Pharmacist 2014, the national title will go to a pharmacist deemed to have gone above and beyond the call of duty in the name of excellent patient care.

Britain’s pharmacists do much more than the public tend to realise in order to look after their patients; unsung heroes of the health service, they work alongside GPs, nurses and hospital staff, providing expert advice and crucial services such as medication reviews and stop smoking services.

Now the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, the professional body representing pharmacists across Great Britain, wants to find Britain’s best loved pharmacist - the pharmacist who goes the extra mile for his or her local community.

There are 18 shortlisted finalists, each of which has demonstrated outstanding passion and commitment to their profession. Collectively, their entries displayed a staggering range of achievements from large scale improvement in patient experience to the introduction of badly needed new services, as well as astonishing heart-warming and life-saving interventions and stories of personal sacrifice.

Local pharmacist Dave has been shortlisted as a finalist for Wales for his (and his team’s) outstanding contribution to the care of their patients.

Dave’s background has been in the hospital sector, but in the run up to his milestone 50th birthday he had a change of heart and moved to the role of pharmacist store manager at Boots.

Dave is passionate about smoking cessation and this has quickly become his area of expertise at the pharmacy. As an ex-smoker himself, Dave has insight into the psychological side of addiction to smoking as well as nicotine addiction and this can help patients.

His courses have been a huge success with Dave treating each patient with dedicated personalised care.

He is about to enrol his 20th client onto his programme. All his clients vary; from a grandmother who gave up on her 80th birthday because she wanted to play tennis with her friends to a young man who needed to give up smoking so he and his partner would become eligible for IVF.

Dave has had immense support from his GP surgery as they have helped him promote his services, and about half of his smokers have been referred to him by the local GPs.

“It is a real honour to be selected in the ‘I Love My Pharmacist’ competition and to know I have had a positive impact on customers’ health and wellbeing. Giving up smoking is a huge deal; it is the single biggest step anyone can take to improve their long term health,” said Dave.

“My experiences have shown me that everyone who gives up smoking does it in their own, unique fashion. I see my role as a supporter, a friend, a cheerleader, an expert and an advisor during their quit attempt. I am able to spend a longer time talking to the clients and it is great to share their delight when they are successfully smoke free.”

Dave’s team have been instrumental in encouraging his passion. The well-trained, highly skilled team deliver a variety of enhanced services such as smoking cessation, emergency contraception and flu vaccinations.

“There’s loads of thing that all community pharmacists do that help other healthcare providers as well as the public,” continued Dave.

“We should be the first stop for anyone with a minor ailment (coughs, colds, hayfever, upset stomach etc); we carry out annual medication check-ups on patients with chronic conditions; provide a discharge medication service for patients leaving hospital.

“I also give flu vaccinations as well as the usual dispensing of prescriptions.

“I think there is massive potential for community pharmacists to provide a free minor ailments service (similar to that being offered in parts of England and Scotland), especially in areas where the GPs are under pressure such as Tenby and Fishguard,” he added.

Neal Patel, pharmacist and head of corporate communications at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said: “We want to celebrate the important role pharmacists play across the NHS, and Dave has demonstrated a high level of personalised care and commitment to serving his area and the panel are delighted that he has been nominated as a regional finalist for Wales.”

To vote for Dave Edwards as your regional winner visit http://www.ilovemypharmacist.co.uk/ by Tuesday, September 29.