Meet our teams

Anita Franklin is one of our lead pharmacy technicians working in the dispensary at QEH and has been part of our team for more than 35 years.

She told us: “Working in the dispensary is very busy – it’s full on most of the time! We deal with medications for inpatients, and of course making sure they have the medicine and information they need when they’re leaving hospital, as well as helping our outpatients who have been given prescriptions at their appointments.

“It’s not just sorting out medication, labelling, accuracy checking and dispensing, however. We’re also able to counsel and advise patients in our reception area – and having that patient contact is invaluable – plus we also deal with queries from patients about their medications, including things like oral chemotherapy.

“Our team comprises technicians, assistants and student technicians and we have around seven on shift at any one time in the dispensary to run the department smoothly. We also have medicines management technicians are based on our wards – they’re all part of our team and offer each other support.

“My colleagues are absolutely fantastic; they get along really well and everyone wants to do the absolute best they can for each patient. There’s a great teamworking ethos in the dispensary, we’re all very flexible in allocating resource and moving people around to make sure we’re processing patients’ prescriptions as swiftly as possible to avoid any delays.

“We have a team meeting every morning and we go through what we’re expecting for the day – but I don’t need to micromanage anyone, they all know what’s expected and they go above and beyond.

“It’s fantastic to see people building relationships. You spend a lot of time at work, you need to get on with your colleagues – it’s really important, and it’s definitely something we look to help new members of the team with right at the start. Our more experienced staff mentor our student colleagues, buddy-up with them and train them.

“We’re a great team, everyone helps each other – no-one’s on their own, we support our staff, we train them well, we have a good reputation as a department. It’s a great place to work – I’ve worked here for 36 years, which I think says something!

“King’s Lynn is a lovely place to live – it’s a really nice old town, with lovely bars and restaurants. We have the best of both worlds – we have Sandringham and lovely woodland to walk through, as well as the most beautiful beaches. The BBC Springwatch team are regular visitors to Norfolk, which tells you what our wildlife is like! It’s a lovely place to live, bring up children and get the most out of life.”