Swettenham Chemists is proud to confirm our new status as Healthy Living Pharmacies. We are the first independent pharmacy group to gain Healthy Living Pharmacy status in Cheshire and Merseyside.
Healthy Living Pharmacy (HLP)
Public Health England's priorities are currently linked to major health risks including smoking, high blood pressure, physical inactivity and alcohol use in addition to such issues such as antibiotic resistance and reducing the risk of dementia. With pharmacies being a major part of the community Swettenham Chemists is well placed to offer services that improve the public's health in these areas. Healthy Living Pharmacy is an established quality mark given to pharmacies that pro-actively engage with their patients to support the health and well being of the communities they serve.
What differentiates a Healthy Living Pharmacy
HLP is about the whole pharmacy team offering an experience to the people they serve. To be awarded the HLP quality mark, a pharmacy team must consistently show a healthy living ethos and proactive approach to health. A pharmacy must at least have one qualified Health Champion and demonstrate they meet a set of quality criteria covering:
The pharmacy's manager must also undertake leadership development to enable changing the pharmacy's delivery model and to engage the whole team.
Why Healthy Living Pharmacies?
HLPs make a difference by having the whole team engaged in pro-actively supporting healthy living in their local communities. Evaluations of HLPs demonstrate the following successful outcomes for patients:
as well as NHS Health checks and guidance on healthy diet, physical activity, healthy weight and pharmaceutical care services.
It has never been more important to prevent disease and ill health. Swettenham Chemists as community pharmacies have a critical role to play in helping patients in these areas.
What are the benefits of HLP?
70% of people who visit Swettenham Chemists do not regularly access other health care services so our HLPs can provide important health and well-being support to people in our communities before they become ill. Our pharmacies improve choice and access to early interventions and support on issues such as:
Local Health services have recognised that HLPs have the ability and capability to deliver more services for the benefit of our local communities and are therefore more likely to commission services from Swettenham Chemists.
As awareness of what services patients can access in a community pharmacy increases and they experience the pro-active support and healthy living ethos of an HLP, the benefits will spread to a wider population helping our patients live well for longer.
We please to share with our patients the congratulations we have received from NHS England and their partner organisation Pharmacy complete.
"Hi Dawn, I just wanted to pass on the thanks from the pharmacy team here at NHS England for your fantastic support to our HLP project. I have been informed that all of your Cheshire and Merseyside pharmacies are now fully accredited and you are therefore the first independent multiple in our area to have achieved this.
This achievement shows your deep determination to place health and wellbeing skills at the core of your teams training and it would be lovely to hear from you with your experiences running local campaigns as you continue on your journey. Perhaps we could feature some photographs of your team and their efforts in our next HLP newsletter to demonstrate what can be done? Thank you immensely.
Fondest wishes to you and your brilliant staff.
Bruce Prentice MRPharmS, Clinical Advisor, NHS England (Cheshire and Merseyside), "
Received from Micheal Holden, Pharmacy Complete
"On behalf of NHS England (Cheshire & Merseyside) I am pleased to inform you that your pharmacy has been accredited as a Level 1 Healthy Living Pharmacy. CONGRATULATIONS! This is a great credit to you and your team at Swettenham Chemists and we wish you well on your continued HLP journey. We will be arranging for an accreditation pack to be sent to you to help you celebrate your achievement and let the public know.
Michael Holden FRPharmS, Principal Associate, Pharmacy Complete"
Our pharmacies are just at the start of their Healthy Living Pharmacy journey and we are excited about the changes and help we will continue to provide to help improve the health of our communities even further.