MODERN pharmacists are set to play an increasingly important role in health care, it is claimed.

Some are now gaining the expertise to diagnose and prescribe as well as to prepare and dispense medicines, according to a Huddersfield expert.

The claims were made by Dr Gillian Hawksworth, a visiting professor at the University of Huddersfield, who has played a significant role in the transformation of the pharmacy profession.

She has now been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association.

It is the latest in a long sequence of honours earned by Dr Hawksworth, including an MBE for services to pharmacy, after she pioneered new approaches at her business in Mirfield – Old Bank Chemist – which she ran for almost 20 years.

In addition to being a past president of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, she has served on many high-profile national committees, conducted a large amount of research and been heavily involved in Higher Education.

She was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Huddersfield, her home town, in 2005.

It was during her Huddersfield childhood that her passion was ignited.

The young Gillian was fascinated by the work being carried out by the pharmacists at the well-known chemist’s shop of Ralph Cuthbert.

Her career path was settled and she registered as a pharmacist in 1974.

But it was a path that would take her in many directions as she worked to develop the role of community pharmacists.

One of the reasons she is delighted by the Lifetime Achievement Award is that a high proportion of the members of this organisation are hospital-based pharmacists.

“The importance to me of this award is that it recognises my role in developing the clinical role of the community pharmacist.

“This goes back to beginning of the 1990s, when I became interested in the community pharmacist becoming much more clinical – like hospital pharmacists – and I started developing services in my pharmacy in Mirfield,” said Dr Hawksworth.

She said modern pharmacists often review the use of medicines, check the compliance of patients, develop public health services and work very closely with doctors.

In addition, pharmacists can now study for postgraduate qualifications that entitle them to prescribe independently within their specialist fields.

“We are healthcare professionals in the high street and we are becoming more and more clinicians,” says Dr Hawksworth.

Dr Chris Green, chairman of the united Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association, said: “Gillian’s involvement in various committees, leadership bodies and national organisations, is pretty much a who’s who of any organisations with influence in pharmacy.

“There can be no doubt that we have a worthy recipient of this award.”