A PHARMACIST working with patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Gloucestershire has been shortlisted for a prestigious award.

Leela Terry, has been working with patients in the county for the last nine years and has been shortlisted as a regional finalist for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s ‘I Love My Pharmacist Award’.

Now in its third year the I Love My Pharmacist Award celebrates the exceptional contribution pharmacists make to patient care every day throughout Great Britain.

Leela, 33, has been shortlisted as a Regional Finalist for Southern England and the Channel Islands for her work with patients with inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which affect over 260,000 people in the UK.

She has been leading medication counselling clinics for over a year at Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal hospitals, having identified and developed this role with the inflammatory bowel disease team.

Many of the complex medicines for inflammatory bowel disease carry risks of serious side effects so the expertise of a specialist pharmacist has proven ‘highly valuable’.

She now sees 24 patients per month across the county allowing time for 36 additional appointments with Leela or specialist nurses each month.

Leela said: “I am delighted to have been shortlisted as a Regional Finalist for the I Love My Pharmacist Award.

“Having a pharmacist on the gastroenterology team is a real benefit to our patients and demonstrates how important it is that pharmacists are part of the multidisciplinary team in hospitals and community.

“Given the challenging nature of the diseases that my patients face, I have also used my consultation skills to identify several cases of depression and encouraged patients to obtain support, and am proud of how much has been achieved so far”.

Dr Ian Shaw, consultant gastroenterologist and speciality director, at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: "Leela has developed a unique role as a specialist pharmacist within our Gastroenterology team.

“The clinics that she runs for patients due to starting complex medication for long term conditions like Crohn’s disease have been extremely popular with patients and freed up consultant and specialist nurse time for other activity.

“She is a highly valued member of our team and it is hard to imagine how we ever managed without her.”

Leela is one of just 23 people in the country to be put forward. To vote visit ilovemypharmacist.co.uk before July 21.