In this episode of our In Conversation With podcast Pharmacy Magazine editor Richard Thomas talks to Victoria Steele, six months into her role as LloydsPharmacy’s first female superintendent pharmacist, about how the company is looking after the mental health of its pharmacy teams in the wake of the pandemic, the rapid growth of its Echo prescription delivery service and the unacceptable side of social media in a frank and wide-ranging interview.

Good Week Bad Week returns in a new format: the departure of Simon Stevens, dispensing doctors, the mental health of female care providers and contractors’ broken NHS payments system all feature. Plus toxic Twitter and an extract from an exclusive interview with LloydsPharmacy’s superintendent pharmacist, Victoria Steele. The full interview will be released next week. The Talking Pharmacy podcast is sponsored by Aronix from Dr Reddy’s.

The CIG editors get together for a podcast 'Spring Special', where each chooses their favourite story of the year so far. Immunisations (Covid and otherwise), abolition of the tampon tax, Harpreet Chana and mental health, Jackie Lewis and cancer care, and huge congratulations to the profession's newest pharmacists who've been through the mill and come out the other side – all feature. Chapeau!

The team is back with Good Week Bad Week: Duncan Rudkin, budesonide, happy 180 for Pharmacist Support, worrying smoking stats, sliding OTC sales, NICE guidance on chronic pain and vaccine patents all feature – and a wakeup call for online pharmacies over codeine. Plus… who is our latest pod super-fan? All revealed in a packed edition.

In this edition of the In Conversation With podcast we talk to Raj Nutan, head of Alphega Pharmacy, about the group’s Covid vaccination programme.

Raj, who still practises as a pharmacist, also shares some of his feelings and experiences from being on the pharmacy frontline and pays tribute to independents for their role in the pandemic.

More on Alphega's Covid vaccination scheme here - https://wba.qumucloud.com/view/dZ3gXRJ7xkx

News story: Alphega joins vaccination drive -

https://www.pharmacymagazine.co.uk/alphega-pharmacy-joins-vaccination-drive

In a special Easter edition of the Talking Pharmacy podcast it’s a Good Week for Covid tests from pharmacies, the Office of Health Promotion, antipsychotic prescribing and pharmacists’ willingness to give annual coronavirus jabs. Bad Week for the common registration assessment and Government transparency over PPE contracts. In the interview hotseat: Raj Nutan, head of Alphega Pharmacy.

In the latest in our In Conversation With series of podcasts we talk to Gareth Hughes, superintendent pharmacist at the Sheppards Pharmacy group in South Wales. Gareth discusses how pharmacy in Wales pulled together over Covid, the bold vision for the sector’s future outlined in Delivering a Healthier Wales and how independent prescribing is unlocking community pharmacists’ clinical capability.

In this week’s podcast it’s a good week for MHRA enforcement, NHS text alerts and contractors in Wales for having their Covid costs covered, but a bad week for the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine in Europe – unjustifiably so. There’s a difference of opinion over former pharmacy minister Steve Brine’s contribution to the hub & spoke debate in the Commons and our Pharmacist on the Frontline interview is with Gareth Hughes of Sheppards Pharmacy in south Wales.

In this week’s podcast it’s a Bad Week for the high street, Greensill and the Review Steering Group, but a Good Week for diversity and inclusion in the profession, revalidation and the NHS. Plus some recommended bedtime reading, a potboiler on pharmacy and the management of long-term conditions.

In a special 4321 episode of the pod it’s a good week for Covid jabbing pharmacy technicians, Avicenna and supporters of BAME women in the NHS; bad week for Rudkin, Clarke, Sunak and CPCS referrals. Plus – ding dong – “the Rob” gets an eagerly anticipated delivery….