What is a head of pharmacy and how do you become one?

Kiran Channa is operational head of pharmacy at Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust. Here she explains what her job involves. 

What is an operational head of pharmacy?

The role involves overseeing and supporting improvement opportunities within our pharmacy department of 100 staff. I like to describe my role as identifying areas for development that will enable teams to create efficiencies and optimise the way they work. In some trusts, my job would be similar to that of a deputy director of pharmacy.

Who do you spend the majority of your working day with?

Most of the time you’ll find me engaging with senior stakeholders across the trust (internal senior pharmacy team, divisional directors, clinical leads and speciality managers). I also spend time building and maintaining external relationships, such as universities where I also lead projects. Currently this is predominantly at the University of Bath, but I also support Keele University teaching and supervising projects.

What does your day typically look like?

I work 10-hour days over 4 days per week: 8am – 6pm, which works really well for me as it enables me to have a good worklife balance. On working days I take a 30-minute lunch break, which allows me to refresh and be ready for my afternoons. About 60% of my time is spent meeting or working with our internal teams.

What skills and qualifications do you need to do your job?

You first need to become a pharmacist, which requires a masters degree in pharmacy, and then you need sufficient experience in the field. In my case, I undertook a postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy which enabled me to work towards a specialist role. I built on this with an independent prescribing qualification, allowing me to independently prescribe medicines in my specialist area (at the time, this was acute alcohol withdrawal). On top of this, you need experience in managing teams. I gained a formal leadership qualification - an operations departmental manager qualification (level 5) - and I would definitely say that it enables me to do my role more effectively. I am also close to completing a professional doctorate in pharmacy.

Why are you pursuing a doctorate?

I began this qualification when I was working in a specialist role. My area of interest is understanding patients’ perspectives of deprescribing – this is the discontinuation of medicines to reduce polypharmacy.

When I began exploring this area, I identified that it was an under-researched area in the UK and I decided I wanted to contribute to this area of practice, to enable healthcare professionals to become more informed about these services and our approach to these consultations. 

What inspired you to become a hospital lead pharmacist? 

When I was at university, I spent some time working at a local hospital to get some broad experience and really enjoyed it. I realised that working in a hospital pharmacy offered a broad range of roles as well as the opportunity to be part of a wider team.

What are the top 3 qualities you need for your role?

Being organised, having patience and also having the ability to empathise.

Would you recommend your job as a career and why? 

Absolutely – due to the many avenues that exist within pharmacy, it offers a very versatile career. My specific role is very rewarding. While I don’t spend as much time directly with patients as others in my team, I do nevertheless influence patient care indirectly. By optimising our workflows and creating the right team culture, we ultimately serve our patients better and that is extremely rewarding for me. My ad-hoc work for Keele university enables me to add some variety to my role. I am the module lead for quality improvement on the university’s masters programme in global healthcare leadership and I also support with assessments and reviewing module content for its postgraduate clinical pharmacy diploma.

What were your key career steps to your current role?

It took around 15 years’ service within the NHS as a senior manager to get to this role. After 7 years spent working in clinical practice, I became a lead pharmacist for a community service in 2016. In this role I visited patients in their homes and reviewed their medication, making significant efficiencies and improvements to their care. For example, by altering the timings of medications to fit with a patient’s lifestyle, you can achieve improved compliance. Also tailoring medication to suit a patient’s needs can also lead to reducing doses and therefore creates cost savings. The next big step was as an associate director. In this role I used quality improvement methodologies to improve productivity across all clinical services from 55% to 85% and taking steps towards creating a research ready workforce. Another area of great importance to me was working with the wider senior leadership team to embed a positive workplace culture. These experiences led me to my current operational role.

How much do pharmacists get paid?

A hospital pharmacist salary starts at Agenda for Change pay band 6 at £37,338, which rises to £44,962 at the top of that pay band. You can progress up the salary scale to band 9 (director of pharmacy), earning £105,385 at the entry point and up to £121,271 as a maximum. Some pharmacists will move into VSM (very senior management) roles, which would go beyond these pay scales. 

What's next? 

Supporting and nurturing talent, fostering growth, and guiding teams to reach their full potential are not just responsibilities I embrace—they are my passions. I am currently training as a leadership coach so that I can further extend my impact as a mentor and uplifting individuals in their professional journeys. The fulfilment I gain from helping others thrive and develop their professional journeys is immeasurable and is a key driver in my career.

Do you have any advice for anyone considering a career in pharmacy management?

The best piece of advice I would give is to gain experience across a range of settings as a junior, as this will expose you to a range of management approaches and systems in different contexts. This will be useful in the future.  Secondly, develop a network along the way as it will provide a valuable support structure in the future – it’s always great being able to talk through ideas or problems, because most of the time they are not unique to one place.  Finally, I would say a lot of my role is about spotting opportunities and opening doors for other people and equipping them with the right tools to become the leaders of tomorrow.  Most of the time, it’s not about me.

How do you take your first step into pharmacy? 

If you want to become a qualified pharmacist, you can take the traditional pathway – a five-year programme of academic and practice-based teaching, with the first four spent at university studying for a master’s degree (MPharm) at university. The final year is spent in practice during a foundation year, after which you can register with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and legally practise as a pharmacist. Many universities offer degrees. Use the UCAS course finder to find the best one for you.

You can work in pharmacy in other roles, however, as a pharmacy assistant and pharmacy technician, and there are apprenticeship routes to both. Pharmacy technicians are registered professionals who work to regulatory standards for pharmacy, as set by the GPhC. Pharmacy assistants work under the supervision of a pharmacist, pharmacy technician, or other accountable healthcare professional, and support the supply, preparation and assembly of medicines as well as issuing them to patients. You can search for training providers here.

Kiran Channa was interviewed by Adele Waters