Janet celebrates 50 years in pharmacy

Leading pharmacists have congratulated a LJMU graduate who is celebrating more than 50 years in the NHS. 

Janet Watkinson began her degree the same year the Beatles played the Cavern Club, at the Liverpool School of Pharmacy in 1967. 

The School now part of Liverpool John Moores University has trained tens of thousands of pharmacists since its founding in 1849.

After graduation Janet started her career in Nottingham City Hospital as a pharmacist on the cancer ward and worked mainly in hospital medicine for nearly thirty years and later joined the inspectorate team at the Commission for Health Improvement in Cambridge, where she worked assessing NHS care.

Janet first attempted to retire in 2009, just at the start of the H1N1 flu pandemic but was asked to return to help. Now over 50 years into her career Janet works in NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough’s medicines optimisation team, as a specialist pharmacist.  

Janet said: “One of the greatest gifts given by the NHS are the friends you make on the way.

"We all joined the NHS with the same purpose – to improve the health of the population and when I look at my team today and at my clinical colleagues in our hospitals, I believe that still holds true today."

She added: “As I come to the end of my career, I look back on the immense progress we have made in pharmaceuticals from rolling pills on a dispensary bench to manufacturing biologicals from hardworking E. coli. bacteria.

"Having now decoded the genome I believe the future is now and will be even more extraordinary thanks to the NHS and those who work within it.” 

Prof Satya Sarker, director of the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University, said: “On behalf of the university and the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, I congratulate Janet on reaching this wonderful milestone of 50 years working for the NHS.

"Fittingly, it comes as we are celebrating 175 years of pharmacy education in Liverpool. Pharmacists play an invaluable role in our communities and healthcare settings helping to improve people’s health and Janet will have made a real difference to so many people’s lives. We wish her well in her future endeavours.”

Sati Ubhi, chief pharmacist at NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, said “Janet’s years of experience and knowledge have proved invaluable for us as a local health system not to mention the fantastic working relationships she has developed with our local pharmacies and hospitals. We’ve been very fortunate to have Janet as part of our team.”