A PHARMACIST from Thornbury has been awarded a fellowship to a prestigious medical society after almost 40 years of outstanding work in the field.

Jane Smith, who is the principal pharmacist for North Bristol NHS Trust, was made a fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in recognition of her contributions through her career to the advancement of pharmaceutical knowledge.

She started working at Southmead Hospital in 1987, and has been the trust’s medication safety officer since 2014, and has had work published in numerous medical journals, and has been shortlisted with the pharmacy team for a number of national awards.

The team won the Patient Safety Award at last year’s North Bristol NHS Trust Exceptional Healthcare Awards.

Having also won a number of awards for her work around medicine reconciliation, reducing missed doses and increasing the use of patients’ own drugs, she is described as passionate about patient safety and quality improvement.

Jane said: “It is great to work in such a great team and help spread knowledge of our work so that other departments may also improve their practice as well – helping more patients may benefit from pharmacy input.

“Being made a fellow was amazing and really was the culmination of a professional career, being nominated by another fellow, judged by a panel of fellows and then appointed.

“But the results of our work are not down to me – it is very much a team effort and great for us to have had such good results for so long.”