This family owned and run Gloucestershire pharmacy quickly adapted to the needs of their community during the pandemic by offering new services, acting as the first port of call for healthcare.
The team at Badham Pharmacy Ltd supported the COVID-19 pandemic campaign with service above and beyond. Team work, training and planning were key to their success which was recognised by the judging panel who awarded them with Gloucestershire Live Family Business of the Year in 2021 at the prestigious awards ceremony.
Key business points:
- Richard Badham founded Badham Pharmacy Ltd in October 1940 in a small shop in Whaddon, Cheltenham.
- Following a demerger in 2006, Richard’s son, Peter, and his wife, grew the independent pharmacy chain from six to 22 branches with a 23rd taking place at the time of their entry.
- 175 employees
The winning entry:
The management of Badham Pharmacy is directly undertaken by the family of five directors. Peter is managing director and superintendent pharmacist whilst his wife Lyn prepares the complex dispensary rotas for the branches as well as working in the pharmacies and dealing with staffing and delivery logistics. Their son, Charles, is pharmacist manager of their busiest branch and assists their warehouse buyer to ensure they can always supply their patients the medication they need. Their daughter, Helen, provides strategic advice on the training and development of their staff, and her husband, Steve, is the operations director.
In 2020, the family celebrated their 80th year in business whilst going through their most challenging period supporting communities across Gloucestershire and Bristol through the COVID-19 pandemic. The team went above and beyond and where other pharmacies reduced their opening hours, they extended theirs and opened every pharmacy over Easter 2020, working in collaboration with NHS England. They supported an End of Life delivery service to patients dying of COVID-19 and supplied their medication delivered within the hour.
The pharmacy worked with the local Primary Care Network to provide a runner service where patients who were tested for COVID-19 by the adjacent GP surgery were supplied with medication. Using a dedicated mobile phone line, the GPs told them what medication they wanted, sent a runner over with the script which was held against the pharmacy window to be checked by the pharmacist and the medication handed out.
From January 2021, having trained their team to provide Pfizer as well as AstraZeneca, they supported the vaccination programme, often administering in excess of 400 vaccines per day. They provide LFT at all pharmacies, as well as the supply of kits to patients for home-testing and provide a screening service for patients wishing to be issued a COVID-19 certificate for flying.
Thanks to their small team of directors they can be extremely adaptable and can implement new services very quickly. NHS England found them both adaptable and supportive not just in the early stages of the pandemic but also with the vaccination service roll out. They learnt that team work, training and planning are the key for continued success.
The Gloucestershire Live Business Awards 2022 will open for entries from 10 March.
