As is the case every year, eight deserving finalists battled it out for the crown of Reckitt Community Pharmacist of the Year 2023.
The title went to John O’Shaughnessy, of Woods CarePlus Pharmacy, Mullingar.
John O`Shaughnessy has been a senior pharmacist for five years in Woods Pharmacy – a Keanes’ CarePlus store –on Mullingar’s main street. He is fully invested in the Keane group’s values in relation to the importance of patient wellbeing, and accordingly leaves no stone unturned to ensure that patients receive the best possible care. During the covid years, he introduced antigen testing, followed by covid vaccinations, showing courage at a time of great uncertainty. John is totally selfless by nature, and puts others before himself, no matter if they are a patient or a staff member. He may be doing 100 jobs at once – but will drop them all to help anyone with anything, whether that be needing help with a prescription – or taking out the bins from the dispensary.
John told us, “To be the winner of the Reckitt Community Pharmacist of the Year is wonderful not only for me, but for my team. We have worked really, really hard to stay at the forefront of healthcare. Covid caused a whole knockdown across the health service and community pharmacy just got on with it and ploughed through it. We are vaccinating, delivering patient focused services and doing everything we can to ensure patients receive un-interrupted care but that also, they get the same type of care they were getting before Covid took place. Our team in particular are well trained for this.
“The work we have done in the last couple of years in particular has all been around patient care and for the healthcare profession as a whole. We are at the front line and we are happy to be at the front line. Pharmacists are the link between patients and doctors and we never closed our doors during Covid.
“The Irish Pharmacy Awards showcase an extremely high standard of excellence; they recognise the efforts of pharmacists and pharmacies nation-wide and they recognise that we have gone through a massive period of turmoil but collectively, we will et through it together. The standards these Awards ask of us are so high, they have become the standards that we hope to continually abide by.”
