Katie wins award in recognition of medicines initiative

Perseverance paid off for Katie Mulliner who has been leading on supporting GP practices and care homes in the county to implement an NHS England initiative regarding the online ordering of medicines.

Katie, who works as a proxy online ordering support lead for Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Clinical Commissioning Group, quickly, however, identified technological barriers to the project and therefore set her sights on persuading NHS Digital to change a national policy.

Her determination over a six-month period paid off and her lobbying has now led to a review in the way medicines ordering will be rolled out nationally.

NHS Digital had criteria, which Katie from her experience as a deputy practice manager, knew would cause massive administrative workload issues for GP practices and care homes.

After three months of continued determination, Katie convinced them of her idea to change the criteria and to run a pilot.

This could lead to a change that will be rolled out across the whole of England.

For her efforts, Katie has been rewarded with the CCG's 'star of the month' award, which was presented by the CCG's interim accountable officer Mark Brandreth.

Katie was nominated by her manager Ceri Wright, care home lead, medicines management, who said: “Katie is a relatively new member to our team but she has achieved great things so far.

“This is just one example of her achievements; she has many others as she is totally dedicated to her role, going over and above anything expected and improving the efficiency of medicines ordering for care homes.”

Katie said: “I feel so overwhelmed, thank you so much for naming me star of the month, I am most grateful, I really am.

“The announcement took me completely by surprise. For the first time in my life I was speechless."

Mark added: “Katie hasn’t been with us long, but she has already made a huge impact in a short period of time.

“Her work on the ordering of medicines for GP practices and care homes is going to have a huge impact – not just within Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, but across the whole country.

“We are very proud of her, and I was delighted to be able to present her with the star of the month Award for November.”