Tom Murray, who led the Irish Pharmacy Union (IPU), knows his patients by family. In his community pharmacy he serves grandparents, parents and children, and reads the patterns between them. “I know their grandparents, themselves, their kids,” he says.
His horizon is also international. He is treasurer of the World Pharmacy Council, working with the WHO, the OECD’s business advisory arm and national governments to keep healthcare a political priority “in a world where many other competing interests currently exist”, in his words.
A health system stronger than its waiting lists
But ask him what works in Ireland’s own health service, and he points to the place most people walk past on the high street, the community pharmacy. Pharmacy in Ireland is moving forward at pace, and community pharmacies are right at the heart of it.